The 92 years old American business magnate with a net worth of 11,730 crores and the present chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Warren Edward Buffett has created a historic mark in the field of philanthropy. Known worldwide for his important investments, Warren has to date given $50.7 billion in total through his donations. As per a Chronicle report, Warren has made historic multibillion-dollar pledges to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and to four foundations related to his family. He made the announcements about his latest yearly payments towards his pledges recently.
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In June 2006, Buffett became the biggest donor on record, when he pledged 10 million shares of his Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock, then valued at about $36.1 billion, to the Gates Foundation, plus 1 million Berkshire shares, then valued at $3.6 billion, to the foundation named for his late first wife, Susan Thompson Buffett, and 350,00 shares, then valued at about $1.3 billion apiece, to foundations created by his three children, Susan, Howard, and Peter Buffett. In total, those five pledges combined were more than $43.5 billion at the time.
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In 2010, Buffett and Berkshire’s other shareholders supported a stock split, which majorly boosted the number of shares Buffet has given the five foundations since then.
With these recent payments, he has given the Gates Foundation about $39.3 billion, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation nearly $4.2 billion, and more than $2.4 billion apiece to the Sherwood, Howard G. Buffett, and Novo foundations.
As per a report, Buffett will continue to donate to these five foundations all his life because he had promised to do so while announcing the pledges in 2006. When Buffett announced his massive pledge to the Gates Foundation, he shared that he intended to do so as he was sure they would be making use of the most of the wealth in the right manner. He felt that Bill and Melinda are better at managing his money so why not donate to their foundation as they will better use it for the world’s welfare?
Philanthropy experts felt Buffett’s decision to give the money to organizations and foundations was innovative. He set an example to others that there are existing organizations that will take care of the funds than creating one’s own foundation to manage the money. Due to Buffett’s pledge, the Gates Foundation rose as a leader while some also kept it under public check.
Philanthropic activities and making profits should go hand-in-hand is what we learn from Warren Buffett’s inspirational story. He has shown to the common public as well as the big corporates that wealth should be distributed by the right means in the right channels so that they reach the right people by fulfilling their basic requirements. One can learn to spend wisely and also save for charity and future requirements if they learn and read stories about successful businesspeople of history. Warren Buffett is known for his 70/30 portfolio in which he suggests 70% of investment capital be given to stocks and 30% to fixed-income securities, majorly bonds.
(Image/Yahoo Finance)
