Warren Buffett Donates $37 Billion To Charity

[HAZE]

Holy shit, just throw a mil my way.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5115920.stm

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.

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".

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

TOP FIVE BILLIONAIRES

Bill Gates (US, Microsoft) -

$50bn

Warren Buffett (US, investor) - $42bn

Carlos Slim (Mexico, industrialist) - $30bn

Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden, Ikea) - $28bn

Lakshmi Mittal (UK, steel) $23.5bn

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.

[lolahotass]

what a wonderful thing to do... i wish i had that kind of money to donate to charity

[kaydup]

He is dying

[dgmodel]

He is dying

yes, its the biggest concern of BRK...

[ghhhhhost]

Exactly