Amid all the wealth on Wall Street, no firm has generated more charitable foundations than Goldman Sachs. By our estimate, current or retired Goldman employees have set up at least 185 family foundations (view list), which sit on a total of $1.3 billion in assets. Together, they are responsible for at least $122.8 million in recent giving. The largest of these foundations made our list of the top 50 givers, including those of the Weinberg family, former chairmen Hank Paulson and Jon Corzine, and former equity-capital-markets honcho Eric Dobkin.

The remarkable number of Goldman-related foundations can be traced almost directly to the firm's 1999 initial public offering and the resulting liquidity event experienced by its partners. But Goldman has long fostered a culture of giving: The firm used to require partners to donate a portion of their earnings to charity, and it continues to cover the administrative costs of foundations set up by employees.

Some philanthropy insiders wonder if Goldman executives will ultimately prove more generous than their peers or whether the huge I.P.O. windfall simply allowed them to act on their charitable intentions earlier than they might have otherwise. But the latter is becoming a tough argument to swallow. The Goldman Sachs Foundation, funded by the firm's partners, is now worth $257 million. And in late November, the firm announced the creation of G.S. Gives—yet another foundation to be funded by the firm's top dogs.