Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 7 of a series)

Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 7 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

This article is part of an ongoing series of excerpts and insights from the recent biography The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business Life by Alice Schroeder. I encourage you to buy this book to get the full story.

“On June 26, 2006, Buffett announced he would give away 85% of his Berkshire Hathaway stock – worth $37 billion at the time – to a group of foundations over a number of years.

“Five out of every six shares would go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, already the largest charity in the world, in a historic marriage of two fortunes for the betterment of the world. He was requiring that the money be spent as it was given, so that the foundations could not perpetuate themselves.

“Buffett divided the remaining shares, worth about $6 billion, among his children’s individual foundations, each of which would receive shares worth $1 billion, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation [his late wife}, which would receive shares worth $3 billion.

“. . . he would establish no Warren Buffett Foundation, no Buffett hospital wing, no college or university endowment or building with his name on it. To donate the money without naming something after himself, without controlling personally how it would be spent – to put the money in the coffers of another foundation that he had selected for its competence and efficiency, rather than creating a whole new empire – upending every convention of giving. No major donor had ever done such a thing before.

“’It was a historic moment in the field of philanthropy globally,’ said Doug Bauer of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. ‘It’s set a bar, a touchstone, for others.’”

“This was another classic Buffett no-lose deal. He had stunned the world by giving away almost all of his money by earmarking it, yet got to keep most of it until he actually transferred the shares. Nonetheless, in one stroke he had transformed a lifetime of grasping at money by committing to letting go – and had started to disburse it by the billions.”

To those of us who grew up in Omaha Buffett’s generosity was particularly amazing because he really wasn’t known in his home community as a big-time donor. After reading the book, I understand know that he, and particularly his first wife, did more giving over the years than any of us ever knew. This is another good example of the difference between the perception of generosity and the reality.

This article is part of series. To read the other articles in the series, please click the links below:

• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 9 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 8 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 6 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 5 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 4 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 3 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 2 of a series)
• Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (part 1 of a series)

Permanent Link: Mega Donor Values Warren Buffett (Part 7 of a series)

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