Renowned investor Warren Buffett has unveiled this year’s pre-Thanksgiving donations, and he’s unloading $1.1 billion to four of his family’s foundations.
The 94-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO is also changing his donation strategy from having his three children disseminate the remainder of his $147.4 billion fortune during the 10 years following his death. Instead, he is designating direct recipients with the idea that the kids, now aged 71, 69 and 66, may not themselves live long enough to give it all away. He said he had discussed it with them and that they approve of the recipients.
“Father time always wins. But he can be fickle – indeed unfair and even cruel – sometimes ending life at birth or soon thereafter while, at other times, waiting a century or so before paying a visit,” Buffett wrote in a statement announcing the donations. “To date, I’ve been very lucky, but, before long, he will get around to me.”
Buffett added that his move was in keeping with the parenting philosophy that he and first wife Susan Buffett had labored under, that “hugely wealthy parents should leave their children enough so they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing,” he wrote.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
Warren Buffett is flanked by his son, Peter, and daughter, Susie, at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha in 2007. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Another change in the offing relates to Buffett’s donations to the Gates Foundation, which he has given billions to annually under the premise that the organization was best equipped to handle large donations. Now, however, Buffett plans to stop that practice because his offspring now have enough philanthropy experience to handle the task.
The Thanksgiving donations are in addition to the larger, main gifts he awards to the five foundations — Gates and the four family organizations — every summer.
He started giving away money after Susan’s 2004 death and amped it up in 2006 by creating the Giving Pledge and encouraging the world’s wealthiest to join him. His 2023 donations topped the list of largest charitable gifts.
With News Wire Services