Warren Buffett

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Berkshire Hathaway

FUNDING AREAS: Education, health and economic development, nuclear threats, children, and community services

OVERVIEW: Warren Buffett has pledged to give away 99 percent of his wealth to philanthropic causes. Approximately 83 percent of that will go to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and much of the rest will be distributed to the foundations of his children. He is a very hands-off philanthropist, preferring to entrust his wealth to those he knows will spend it wisely on worthwhile philanthropic causes. He was a trustee of the Gates Foundation until his resignation in 2021.

BACKGROUND: Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, but he spent much of his childhood in D.C. after his father was elected to Congress. Early on, he showed an entrepreneurial spirit. He entered the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania at 17 and transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to finish his undergraduate studies in business administration. He then received an MBA and a master's in economics from Columbia before returning to Omaha to work as a stockbroker. Buffett formed several partnerships there, one of which eventually led to him investing in and taking control of a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway. Gradually, he converted Berkshire Hathaway into an investment firm. Under his guidance — not to mention his talent for recognizing undervalued assets — it grew into one of the largest and most successful holding companies in the world.

GATES FOUNDATION: Buffett was so impressed with the progress the Gates Foundation has made in global health and development, and in education in the United States, that he decided to use his fortune to upscale the Gates Foundation's work rather than funnel money into his own foundation. To that end, Buffett has pledged 10 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock to the Gates Foundation over a period of years. He has already donated more than 30 percent of that amount and is adding about 4 percent per year. In classic Buffett fashion, however, the gift is conditional upon the foundation's giving away each year, at minimum, an amount equal to the value of the entire previous year's gift from Buffett plus 5 percent of the foundation's net assets. In 2020, Buffett donated $2.9 billion in Class B Berkshire Hathaway stock, four-fifths of which supports the Gates Foundation. He donated a further $4.1 billion in stock in 2021. Buffet has given nearly $39.3 billion to the Gates Foundation since 2006.

BUFFETT FAMILY FOUNDATIONS: In addition to supporting the Gates Foundation, Buffett has pledged Berkshire Hathaway stock to each of his children's foundations, worth more than $2 billion each. These foundations include Peter and Jennifer Buffett's NoVo Foundation, which seeks to empower adolescent girls and end violence against women; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which focuses on food and water security, conflict mitigation, endangered mammal conservation, and local community support; and Susan Buffett's Sherwood Foundation, which focuses on early childhood education both in Nebraska and nationally and on rural and urban community development in Nebraska. According to available tax filings, the NoVo Foundation awarded around $160 million in grants in 2017 and the Howard G. Buffett and Sherwood foundations awarded $140 million and nearly $208 million in grants in 2018, respectively.

Buffett also has offered support for the foundation that bears his late wife's name, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which offers scholarships to Nebraska colleges. According to available tax filings, the foundation gave away $624 million in 2018. Buffett’s sister Doris, who passed away in August 2020, has the Sunshine Lady Foundation, which also focuses on education, particularly for women. Available tax filings indicate that Sunshine Lady awarded $6.1 million in grants in 2018.

COMMUNITY: For the past several years, Buffett has auctioned off lunch with himself to support the Glide Foundation, raising more than $4.5 million in 2019. It is a bit of an odd partnership, as Buffett is known for being an agnostic from Omaha, while the Glide Foundation is the charitable arm of a Methodist Church in San Francisco to which Buffett has no readily apparent connection. Still, the Glide Foundation does good work, offering free meals, shelter, health services, drug abuse prevention and rehab, and domestic violence counseling to many in need.

OTHER SUPPORT: Buffett also supports the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which was founded by Ted Turner and Sam Nunn. He's also made contributions to a variety of other organizations, including the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, Smile Train, the Animal Rescue Foundation, Music Rising, and the Make A Wish Foundation. Most recently, he made a $10 million donation to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel. 

LOOKING FORWARD: Buffett has already committed much of his wealth to the Gates Foundation and the foundations run by his family, and given his long-practiced hands-off form of philanthropy, it is unlikely that he will be championing any new philanthropic endeavors on his own. Buffett has mentioned before, however, that the one thing he has not given enough of is his most valuable asset — his time. And Buffett's time is extremely valuable, as evidenced by the multimillion-dollar donations a dinner with him can bring in. With this in mind, and in light of his Giving Pledge, perhaps we will see Buffett start to participate in more fundraisers and benefits. Still, with pockets as deep as Buffett's, he can afford to make significant contributions to any organization he chooses without feeling the slightest dent in his personal fortune.

Additionally, Buffett appears to be increasing the pace of his philanthropy, giving two major gifts within a single calendar year for the first time in 2022.