Great fortunes are being made in Asia, and those fortunes are increasingly earmarked for philanthropy. Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing has pledged to leave one-third of his $32 billion fortune to charity.

Anil Agarwal has committed $1 billion toward creating a new university in India. Yang Huiyan, China's richest person, and her father, Yeung Kwok Keung, donated $32 million to charities last year, making them the country's biggest givers.

In pictures:
48 Asian altruists
India's 40 richest

This year, for the first time, we've put together a list of 48 philanthropists--4 from each of 12 countries. We don't pretend these are the 48 biggest givers. That would be an impossible list to compile, unless each person agreed to let us peek at his or her bank records. So our list is somewhat subjective: We aimed to identify not only some of the largest donors but also some of the most interesting--generous folks who may not make one of our rich lists but who put a hefty share of their money into much-needed, and sometimes unusual, projects.

In pictures:
Asia's self-made billionaires
Most giving companies

Wee Lin is worth only $3.5 million, but he's opened a home for the mentally ill in Singapore and donated numerous items to North Korea, after seeing what was needed during trips there. Malaysia's Leonard Linggi Tun Jugah, for example, puts his donations into preserving the culture of the Ibans, an indigenous group on Borneo.

Undoubtedly we missed some big givers, others we just didn't have room for-- especially in Hong Kong, India and Australia. What we most tried to avoid are people who donate their company's money. Giving away shareholders' assets certainly isn't charity, though tycoons and chief executives engage in a lot of this and then get credit for being generous.

In pictures:
How to give like an entrepreneur
Online giving resources

For our list, we tried to make sure that people were giving away their own money and not their company's, but the line is fuzzy. Sometimes philanthropists do both, and sometimes they own such a large share of their company that corporate giving is personal giving.

We hope that by spotlighting these 48 and their achievements, we'll encourage even more giving. The money is certainly there, and so is the need.

Reported by Susan J. Cunningham, Russell Flannery, Ioannis Gatsiounis, Naazneen Karmali, Kiyoe Minami, Suzanne Nam, Hillary Prey, Andrew Salmon, Lucinda Schmidt, Emily Stewart and Jessica Tan