Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, aged 93, recently offered his biggest annual donation since 2006 to the tune of $5.3 billion worth of shares in the Berkshire Hathaway company. The five family charities that will benefit from this extremely kind gesture are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four others. As for philanthropy, Buffett has remained a generous person, and this donation brings the total of his donations to $57 billion.
Donation Details
Warren Buffett donated roughly 13 million Berkshire Class B shares in this latest round of donating. Of these shares, 9.93 million was donated to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is involved in funding health, education, and fighting poverty worldwide. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, his deceased first wife, received 993,035 shares. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation, all charities run by his children, were distributed 695,122 shares each.
Warren Buffett to the Journal, “I feel very, very good about the values of my three children, and I have 100% trust in how they will carry things out.”
Lifetime Commitment
However, this is not the only philanthropic effort of Warren Buffett as a philanthropist. He wants to donate more than 99% of his wealth to philanthropy. He has amassed a fortune through his chairmanship of Berkshire Hathaway and as per Forbes magazine, he is the eighth richest man in the world at the moment. Even after donating over $10 billion of Berkshire stock since 2006, he continues to hold approximately one-seventeenth of all the shares
The Giving Pledge
Warren Buffett was among the founders of the Giving Pledge alongside Bill and Melinda Gates. This scheme inspires high-net-worth individuals to dedicate not less than fifty percent of their resources to charitable organizations. Warren Buffett’s charitable foundations aim at issues such as reproductive rights, world hunger, conflict, and women’s rights.
Other Causes that Warren Buffett Supports
The philanthropy of Warren Buffett is guided by purpose and an overall plan focusing on long-term change and the deliberate solution of social problems. Personal philanthropic causes include provisions of global health involving disease eradication, health services, and better health of disadvantaged groups within the community. He has a strong faith in education for change.
His foundations aim at enhancing the quality of education availed and achieved by students. Specifically, Buffett’s philanthropy is focused on issues of relevancy and justice. Some of the causes they fund include social justice, human rights, and the rights of empowerment.
Conclusion
Warren Buffett’s recent $5.3 billion donation is proof that he is fully committed to the cause of changing the world for the better through effective philanthropy. This example encourages other individuals to emulate his footsteps and support beneficial causes. Lately, Warren Buffett stated that he wants to leave most of his money to a new charitable trust set up by his three kids. Each child organizes their foundation, which is concerned with different issues, including reproductive justice, food justice, peace, and justice, as well as the support of Indigenous populations.
