Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave away the coveted Forbes Richest man title last year by siphoning off more than a third of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Reuters reported that if Bill Gates had retained $28 billion, the amount that Gates ploughed into the foundation, Gates would have easily topped the Forbes 2010 list. Forbes is due to release its 2011 list on Wednesday.

While Gates and Warren Buffet have consistently topped the top 10 billionaires' list compiled by Forbes, they have also given significant portions of their wealth for philanthropic purposes. Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffet has until now given $8 billion to the Gates foundation and has pledged his entire fortune to the foundation.

Microsoft founder Gates set the precedent for IT bigwigs in philanthropy and his example has been well received by tech company founders. A list titled The Philanthropy 50: Americans Who Gave the Most in 2010 compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy includes names of some key tech honchos who have allocated portions of their fortunes for various philanthropic causes.

The list includes Irwin M. Jacobs, the co-founder of wireless communication firm Qualcomm who ranked 4th in the list, followed by Marc Benioff the founder of cloud-based CRM software provider Salesforce who is ranked 10th. The list also includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ranked 10th as well, Pierre Omidyar founder of eBay ranked 16th , Ming Hsieh founder of Cogent Inc. ranked 19 and Larry Ellison founder of Oracle Corporation ranked 24.

Here is slideshow of the top five American technology company founders who gave the most for philanthropic causes in 2010:

Irwin M. Jacobs Qualcomm
Irwin Jacobs is the co-founder of the wireless communication company Qualcomm Incorporated and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA ) digital wireless technology. He was ranked 4th in the list of: The Philanthropy 50: Americans Who Gave the Most in 2010. Jacobs donated $119.5 million in 2010. A major chunk of the donated amount $75 million was pledged to the University of California at San Diego Health System, in La Jolla. Currently Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors power some of the major smartphones like HTC Evo and HTC Thunderbolt. Reuters
Marc R. Benioff Salesforce
Marc Benioff, the chairman, CEO and founder of online CRM software company Saleforce.com, is ranked 10th in the list of top 50 American donors. He donated $100 million in 2010, pledging the amount to the University of California at San Francisco Children’s Hospital for a new building. Reuters
Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook
Social networking site Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, the recently crowned Time Person of the year, was ranked 10th tying with Marc Benioff. Zuckerberg donated $100 million pledging the amount towards his foundation Startup: Education. Reuters
Pierre Omidyar eBay
Pierre Omidyar, the founder of online auction site eBay, is ranked 16th in the list. Omidyar donated $61.5 million in 2010, to Hope­Lab; Humanity United, the nonprofit arm of the Omidyar Network, in Redwood City, which supports a variety of charities; and the nonprofit branch of the Ulupono Initiative, a Honolulu organization. His wife Ms. Omidyar is chairwoman of HopeLab, a nonprofit in Redwood City, Calif., that develops technology to help chronically ill children. Reuters
Ming Hsieh Cogent Inc
Ming Hsieh is the founder of Cogent Inc., a company that develops software for automated fingerprint identification systems. Prior to Cogent he also founded AMAX Information Technologies, a server and storage company. He is ranked 19th in the list, having donated $50 million in 2010. The amount was pledged to the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. University of Southern Califor
Lawrence J. Ellison Oracle
Larry Ellison, the founder of software giant Oracle, is ranked 24th in the list with $45.1 million in donations for the year 2010. The donation was allocated to his Ellison Medical Foundation, in Bethesda, for biomedical research. Reuters
Bill Gates Oracle Marc Benioff Facebook