Buffett donates $37bn to charity

[6'bore]

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is to donate about $37bn (£20bn) - most of his vast personal fortune - to Bill Gates' charitable foundation.
Mr Buffett will hand 10 million shares in his Berkshire Hathaway firm to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In a statement, Mr and Mrs Gates said they were "awed" by the donation, thought to be the largest charitable gift ever made in the United States.

The foundation aims to fight disease and promote education around the world.

News of the donation comes shortly after Mr Gates announced he is to step away from his day-to-day role at software giant Microsoft.

By July 2008 Mr Gates, the world's richest businessman, will concentrate on the foundation, which is currently worth just under $30bn.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said the size of the foundation's cash pile dwarfed that of other organisations, and compared it with the $12bn annual budget of the United Nations.

He added that the foundation was "an extraordinary new force in the voluntary sector".

New will

Warren Buffett, known as "the sage of Omaha" for his relentless success in investments, is worth an estimated $44bn, according to Forbes magazine.

The billionaire philanthropist

As well as donating to the Gates foundation, he also pledged shares for his three children and a substantial gift for a foundation named for his late wife, Susan Thompson Buffett.

All the gifts will be awarded yearly, with 5% of each donation passed on each year, it was announced.

He confirmed his decision in letters to the recipients, and said he would write a new will to ensure the money continues to be distributed after his death.

"We are awed by our friend Warren Buffett's decision to use his fortune to address the world's most challenging inequities, and we are humbled that he has chosen to direct a large portion of it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation," the couple's statement said.

In making his award, Mr Buffett - who plays bridge with Mr Gates - said he chose to distribute his wealth to an existing foundation out of respect for its current work.

"Who wouldn't select Tiger Woods to take his place in a high-stakes golf game? That's how I feel about this decision with my money," he told Fortune magazine.

"I don't think I'm as well cut out to be a philanthropist as Bill and Melinda are," he added.

One of the terms of the donation is that at least one of Bill or Melinda Gates continues to be involved with the foundation.

The foundation has evolved into one of the leading philanthropical organisations in the world, listing as one of its primary goals "reducing the 'unconscionable disparity' that exists between the way that we live and the way that the people of the developing world live".

Simple life

Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said that Mr Buffett's donation was the largest made by one person in the US.

Meeting Warren Buffett

She explained that Mr Buffett's largesse eclipses the charitable donations of such well-known givers as John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.

Despite his huge wealth, Mr Buffett has modest tastes, is called a "cola and hamburger kind of guy", plays the ukulele, and still lives in the same house he bought in his home town of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1957.

During his interview, Mr Buffett explained that the death of his wife Susan was one of the reasons behind his donation to the Gates Foundation, because he had thought she would outlive him and handle the dispersal of his wealth.

I'm glad to see someone is finally mking a public sizeable donation to charity. It always annoyed me when various billionaires ould donate a large chunk of thir fortune, and hardly notice it was gone, yet didn't do it. OR atleast not publicly anyway. Then events where held such as live 8, where various artists would sing to raise money, when each one of them could quite easily make a contribution of a few million, yet don't.

[baddabang]

Holy crap, He deserves one heck of a thank you card from the Bill Gates Foundation

I guess when your old and can already leave your kids billions the least you could do would be to give some away.

[Mustang]

apparently he only has about £24bn

[my porsche]

when each one of them could quite easily make a contribution of a few million, yet don't.

Because you know them personally and they've told you they only want to raise it, not give it away, right?

Im pretty sure Bono and one or two other members of U2 give alot of money.

Anyway...$37B is an insane amount. Althought it said shares of stock, and it said that "most" of this was from his money...who knows what "most" means.

[Jack_Bauer]

I'm glad to see someone is finally mking a public sizeable donation to charity. It always annoyed me when various billionaires ould donate a large chunk of thir fortune, and hardly notice it was gone, yet didn't do it. OR atleast not publicly anyway. Then events where held such as live 8, where various artists would sing to raise money, when each one of them could quite easily make a contribution of a few million, yet don't.

See, that's where my natural cynicism chimes in. I've no doubt that lots of the world's richest zillionaires DO make large charitable donations. I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is one of the most generous charity donors on the planet. Just because they don't make a big PR song and dance about it doesn't mean they don't do it. It's why I'm always cynical when people DO come out and publically come out and announce to the world how unbelievably wonderfully spectacularly generous and benevolent they are. I'd much rather they just made generous donations privately and kept their public image and ego out of it.

Obviously it's better to make a song and dance about donating than not donate at all of course.

[6'bore]

See, that's where my natural cynicism chimes in. I've no doubt that lots of the world's richest zillionaires DO make large charitable donations. I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is one of the most generous charity donors on the planet. Just because they don't make a big PR song and dance about it doesn't mean they don't do it. It's why I'm always cynical when people DO come out and publically come out and announce to the world how unbelievably wonderfully spectacularly generous and benevolent they are. I'd much rather they just made generous donations privately and kept their public image and ego out of it.

Obviously it's better to make a song and dance about donating than not donate at all of course.

I see where your coming from and what your saying makes sense.

But I'm a very sceptical person and tend to find it hard to believe something unless I see it. Therefore because they don't make posible donations public, I generally believe it is because they make few donations, and/or donations they do make could be considered to be very small in comparison to their fortune.

[dydzi]

why people like those can't give me just something like 1 mln euros...

[6'bore]

why people like those can't give me just something like 1 mln euros...

Because you don't live in poverty

[Matt]

See, that's where my natural cynicism chimes in. I've no doubt that lots of the world's richest zillionaires DO make large charitable donations. I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is one of the most generous charity donors on the planet. Just because they don't make a big PR song and dance about it doesn't mean they don't do it. It's why I'm always cynical when people DO come out and publically come out and announce to the world how unbelievably wonderfully spectacularly generous and benevolent they are. I'd much rather they just made generous donations privately and kept their public image and ego out of it.

Obviously it's better to make a song and dance about donating than not donate at all of course.

That $30B that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation already has came from Bill himself. So, yeah, he does donate quite a bit. And he has been for years.

[:Exige:]

Then events where held such as live 8, where various artists would sing to raise money, when each one of them could quite easily make a contribution of a few million, yet don't.

Wrong. Live 8 wasn't held to raise money, they made that very clear. It was held to put pressure on politicians because of the G8 conference or whatever it was called. It was to persuade them to forget about 3rd world debts. No money was raise whatsoever.

[matek]

Theyve made massive donations to finding cures for various diseases and to governments organisations.

When you compar 30bn dollars or pounds to 300 milion it may seem small but its still a huge amount of money for an organisation to get given.

I i agree i know of some donations because ive read into it the articles are very small and not wide spread.

^^^ yep G8 tickets were free dont you rememebr they never made a cent.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Good on this guy - it doesn't matter if it was public or otherwise, the fact he's donating at all is a great thing.

if he wants to crow about it that's his choice - as long as the donation is made....

Think of the Tax he'll save

[Spastik_Roach]

I would certainly make my donations clear, if public speculation had been that I was a greedy bastard or something along the lines of that.

[Egg Nog]

In case anyone was wondering, it said in the paper that this donation equals approximately 85% of his net worth, so it really is quite significant. It's always great to see something like this go to such a good non-partisan charity, rather than a political party or religious group.

[zeta]

apparently he only has about £24bn

in his chump change account aloan