Warren Buffett

Bill Gates Gives Up "World's Richest Man" Status for Philanthropy

Filed under: Charity, Big Givers, Wealth

On Wednesday, Forbes magazine will publish its annual list of the richest billionaires in the world. It's almost certain to include Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim in the top three, but while Gates has topped the list nearly every year since 1995 (losing out only once to Buffett by a margin of half a billion), this year we're not expecting to see the Microsoft co-founder in the top spot.

The reason for Gates' displacement? His overwhelming philanthropic activity. Although his personal fortune today is estimated around $49 billion, he and his wife Melinda have funneled some $28 billion into their non-profit foundation. As a result, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim – who contributes far less than Gates or Buffett to charity - is expected to top the list.

[Source: Reuters]

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Tags: bill gates, billionaire, billionaires, carlos slim, philanthropy, warren buffett, worlds richest man

Warren Buffett To Turn Jewelry Salesman For One Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Wealth

For one day only, financial guru Warren Buffett will be taking on a new role, jewelry salesperson. The Berkshire Hathaway will be behind the counter at Borsheims in Omaha, Nebraska during Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders' Weekend. You can buy your jewelry directly from Mr. Buffett on Sunday afternoon, May 1 at the Borhsheims store. Borsheims is a Berkshire Hathaway company. In a release, Borsheims President & CEO Susan Jacques said, "We are thrilled and flattered that Warren wants to come and sell at our store. I'm sure he'll be a record-setting salesman within a few minutes of being on the sales floor!" Given the fact that his charity lunches go for millions, I'm guessing there will be a line out the door.

As the video below explains, the Buffett family in Omaha goes back for generations explaining why, although he has the means to live anywhere in the world, Warren Buffett has always chosen to remain close to home. Buffett's success as one of the world's top financial minds has turned the annual shareholder's weekend for Berkshire Hathaway into a well-attended event bringing the world to Omaha each year. It has become the Super Bowl of shareholder meetings with major media and thousands of shareholders in attendance.

[via JCK Online]

Tags: berkshire hathaway, berkshire hathaway shareholders meeting, omaha, warren buffett

Doris Buffett, Warren Buffett's Big Giving Big Sister

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity, Big Givers

Warren Buffett isn't the only philanthropist in his family. The oracle of Omaha has a big giver for a big sister too. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on 82-year-old Doris Buffett and her Sunshine Lady Foundation. The article says that she has already given away about $120 million, about half way toward her goal of giving away all her assents in her life time. So far her foundation has helped a variety of charities offering scholarships, help for families in crisis and more on an individual hands-on basis.

The Sunshine Lady Foundation is a private family foundation founded in 1996 by Doris Buffett and each Sunshine Lady Foundation grant is considered an investment in the recipient. The Times-Dispatch article says that big projects have included construction of a Boys and Girls Club, housing for people with intellectual disabilities, college scholarships for abused women, and a college degree program for prisoners.

Warren Buffett has defined the difference between his version of philanthropy and his sister's, saying: "I'm wholesale. She's retail." He praised his sister for her method of changing individual lives saying he is very proud of her. The Sunshine Lady Foundation has volunteers who read about 100 letters a day, vetting them each individually. Check out a video with the inspiring Doris Buffett after the jump.

Tags: doris buffett, philanthropy, warren buffett

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Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Others Join Giving Pledge

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity, Big Givers

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is the one of the latest billionaires to sign on to the Giving Pledge campaign started by Bill Gates and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. The Giving Pledge calls for billionaires to pledge at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death.

The list of those signed on to the Giving Pledge now has 57 families. The recent batch of billionaires include AOL co-founder Steve Case, investor Carl Icahn and Michael Milken who join Larry Ellison, George Lucas and Michael Bloomberg in the ultimate big givers roll call.

"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" said Mark Zuckerberg in a press release. "With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts."

A full list of those taking the pledge and personal letters by many of these pledgers outlining their commitment to give is available online at www.givingpledge.org. Carl Icahn said that "until Bill, Melinda and Warren started this project, I never considered going public with my intentions. However, I certainly see the value of a project that encourages wealthy individuals to step forward and commit to use their wealth for the common good. I hope that by adding my voice with those who are supporting this project, we will all encourage others to participate."

Tags: bill and melinda gat..., bill and melinda gates foundation, bill gates, dustin moskovitz, facebook, giving pledge, mark zuckerberg, melinda gates, philanthropy, warren buffett

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Chinese Billionaire Joins Gates/Buffett Giving Pledge

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Big Givers

A Chinese philanthropist has joined the Giving Pledge campaign started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Chen Guangbiao, chairman of Jiangsu Huangpu Renewable Resources Utilization, is a well-known Chinese philanthropist and wealthy businessman, he recently gave one million yuan (around $150,000) to the Pakistani flood victims. He is the first in China to respond to the campaign. Gates and Buffett plan to make their pitch to Chinese billionaires in person in Beijing, China at a special dinner on September 29. Around 50 super wealthy Chinese businesspeople have been invited to the banquet but some have opted not to attend.

News reports say that Chen Guangbiao posted an open letter to Gates and Buffett on his company website. The letter pledges that he will donate his entire fortune of more than five billion yuan ($735 million) to charity when he dies. Chen's letter says that it will be a "glory" to return his entire fortune to society and that it is a "shame" to die hoarding wealth.

He's no stranger to showy philanthropy. Earlier this year he built a "money wall" at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's (ICBC) Jiangsu Branch to collect donations for poor families. He was on the top of the 2010 China Charity List released by the China Association of Social Workers. It is said that he has already donated a total of 1.34 billion yuan.

Tags: bill gates, billionaires, chen guangbiao, giving pledge, philanthropy, warren buffett

Paul Allen Joins BIll Gates By Giving Away His Fortune

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity, Big Givers

Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft and now Allen is taking a page out of Gates's book, announcing that he will give more than half of his estimated $13.5 billion fortune to philanthropy. Just last month we learned about a plan that Gates, his wife, Melinda and Warren Buffett had cooked up to get the country's billionaires to earmark half their fortunes to charitable causes. Other billionaires who have already committed to at least a 50 percent pledge include Eli and Edy Broad, John and Ann Doerr, H.F. "Gerry" and Marguerite Lenfest and John and Tashia Morgridge.

Allen already has an existing foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. His projects have included the nonprofit scientific research done at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Allen institute and the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum. As the NY Times reports Allen has made Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of the nation's 50 largest donors, eight times. Last year, he ranked No. 11 for giving away $85 million.

Tags: bill gates, microsoft, paul allen, philanthropists, philanthropy, warren buffett

Buffett And Gates Encourage Billionaires To Donate At Least Half of Their Fortunes

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Big Givers

Last year I wrote about the secret meeting of some of the world's biggest philanthropists. Now Fortune has revealed sone of what happened during that meeting. Fortune's Carol Loomis reports that Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are making a plea to the nation's richest citizens. They are asking the nation's billionaires to pledge at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. Gates tells Fortune that he thinks 50 percent should be the "low bar" and that people should actally give more. Buffet also reaffirmed his own philanthropy pedge saying that he and his family decided to "keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs" giving away more than 99 percent of his wealth.

And they aren't alone. Fortune says that other billionaires who have already committed to at least a 50 percent pledge include Eli and Edy Broad, John and Ann Doerr, H.F. "Gerry" and Marguerite Lenfest and John and Tashia Morgridge. The Fortune article goes on to say that after the first billionaires' dinner there were several more dinners set up by the Gateses. Part of the goal was just to talk about giving and why some people don't give as much as they could. In the article Melinda Gates explains that the first part of the pledge campaign is just to help move people forward in the direction of thinking about giving and what good their money can do in the world and to plan ahead. The initiative is a long-term one and given, the potential money at stake, one which has the power to reimagine the social landscape.

Tags: bill gates, melinda gates, philanthropy, warren buffett

Buffett Lunch Auction Sets New Record

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Charity, Big Givers

It's hard not to see the recent boost in charity auction hauls as a positive sign. The latest economic boost comes with the results of the eleventh annual charity auction of lunch with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett. The auction to dine with the octogenarian oracle of Omaha set a new record, $2,626,311 on eBay. That's far above last year's $1.68 million total and beats the 2008 record of $2.1 million. Proceeds benefit San Francisco's Glide Foundation, which helps the homeless and others in need of aid. No word on who the winner is but the lunch will take place as usual at Smith & Wollensky in New York City.

Tags: buffett lunch, charity auction, glide foundation, warren buffett

How Much Will Warren Buffett's Charity Lunch Fetch This Year?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Big Givers

It's time once again for Warren Buffett to auction himself off for a good cause. Each June, Buffett heads to eBay to offer up a lunch for eight people to benefit the Glide Foundation, an organization that provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco.

The lunch is up for bid on eBay until June 11, 2010 at 7:30 pm PDT. As usual Buffett will dine with the winning bidder and up to seven friends at Smith & Wollensky in New York. All bidders must pre-qualify and the opening bid is $25,000. Last year the auction brought in $1.68 million and Buffett has made as much as $2.1 million for Glide with this annual offer. The Wall Street Journal reports that past auctions have raised about $6 million in total for the foundation. On June 11 the last hour of bidding will be broadcast on a screen for the crowd at a fundraising dinner for the organization.

Tags: buffett lunch, ebay, glide foundation, warren buffett

NetJets Announces Major Pilot Layoffs

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

NetJets Inc., the fractional ownership and plane leasing company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has announced major layoffs. Due to a slowdown in business travel and the overall usage of private jets the company is firing 495 pilots.

Bloomberg quotes a statement from David Sokol, NetJets CEO who said that the decision came from looking at current and predicted flight demand. The news comes just around two months after Sokol took over and the company moved back to Columbus, Ohio.

Currently the company owns more planes than it is using. NetJets employs over 3,000 pilots worldwide. The layoffs come after an earlier layoff of 350 non-pilot workers which was announced in September. Some are questioning whether or not the fractional private jet model still has a place in this economy. I think it does but that the scale may be smaller than these companies would like.

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Tags: berkshire hathaway, BerkshireHathaway, netjets, warren buffett, WarrenBuffett

Forbes' List of 'Billion Dollar Donors'

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity, Wealth

I'm sure a list of the world's wealthiest is a fluctuating compendium these days making a list of donors a nice change of pace from Forbes. Of course most of these 'Billion Dollar Donors' would most likely make the cut for some of the nation's most affluent individuals as well but here their philanthropic tendencies are the focus of attention. These fourteen people, out of 793 billionaires worldwide, have actually donated, not just pledged, over $1 billion total. Here are some of the world's most generous givers:

1 Bill Gates, $28 billion donated.
2 George Soros, $7.2 billion
3 Gordon Moore (shown at right), $6.8 billion
4 Warren Buffett, $6.7 billion
5 Eli Broad, $2 billion
6 James Stowers, $1.9 billion
7 Herbert and Marion Sandler, $1.5 billion
8 Michael Bloomberg, $1.5 billion
9 Li Ka-shing, $1.37 billion
10 Dietmar Hopp, $1.25 billion
11 Michael Dell $1.2 billion
12 Klaus Tschira, $1.1 billion
13 Stephen Schmidheiny $1 billion
14 Ted Turner, $1 billion

Anybody you are surprised didn't make the list?

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Tags: bill gates, BillGates, billion dollar donor, BillionDollarDonor, charity, donate billions, DonateBillions, forbes, gordon moore, GordonMoore, ted turner, TedTurner, warren buffett, WarrenBuffett

Buffett Lunch Brings In $1.68 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Charity, Big Givers

It's not quite as good as last year's $2.1 million but the Glide Foundation is still excited by the $1.68 million brought in by this year's charity auction to have lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett. The total is the second highest result for the annual auction. The Glide Foundation provides social services to San Francisco's homeless and poor. Buffett's late wife Susan was once a volunteer for Glide and Buffet's lunches have now raised more than $5.92 million for the charity since the auctions began in 2000. Last year's winner recently enjoyed his $2.1 million lunch with the Oracle of Omaha in New York City. This year's winner has decided to remain anonymous for the time being.

Why pay so much money for lunch with Buffett? The winner gets more than just a meet and greet with the billionaire. Mohnish Pabrai who won the 2007 auction for $650,100 told Bloomberg that both Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger "have been very gracious with access since the lunch." He has had two meetings with them since his lunch last June. The 2006 winner, Yongping Duan, who paid $620,100 for his lunch has said that he is always invited to the Sunday brunch that follows Berkshire Hathaway's popular annual shareholder meeting.

The 2008 winner Zhao Danyang of Hong Kong, brought his wife, son and friends for lunch with Buffett last week at Smith & Wollensky in New York City. Buffet already said after the lunch that he will see more of last week's winners. Zhao said of the lunch that the experience "can't be measured by money." Sounds like another satisfied customer.

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Tags: glide foundation, GlideFoundation, oracle of omaha, OracleOfOmaha, warren buffett, WarrenBuffett

Will Lunch With Buffett Bring The Big Bucks This Year?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Charity, Big Givers

The value of everything seems to be flexible in this economy and even the price of Warren Buffett might be lower. Buffett auctions off a lunch each year for charity. Last year, bidders were hungry for a meal with the billionaire, the winning bid was a record-setting $2.1 million. Will he get the same kind of return this year at a time when just about everything is priced lower? Or could the bidding go higher because in this economy we need all the good advice we can get and who better to ask than one of the greatest investment minds of our time? Who else can get a crowd of 35,000 to attend a shareholders meeting, those are rock star numbers.

Buffet's lunch benefits the Glide Foundation, an organization that provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco. Like many other service groups, Glide has seen the needs for its services increase during the recession so Glide's founder, Rev. Cecil Williams is hoping for big numbers.

The winner and seven friends will dine at Smith and Wollensky in New York City. The auction closes Friday evening at 10 p.m. EDT and bids have already topped $50,000. The AP reports that last year's winner, Zhao Danyang of the Hong Kong-based Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund will be dining with Buffett on Wednesday, a meal that he calls "the chance of a lifetime."

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Tags: charity, glide, warren buffett, WarrenBuffett

Oprah Winfrey Joins World's Richest Philanthropists For Secret Meeting

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Big Givers, Wealth

How would you like to be a fly on the wall for this event, a secret meeting of some of the world's biggest givers? On May 5, Bill Gates, David Rockefeller Sr., Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet and other leading philanthropists met in New York to discuss the world's problems. The high-profile confab was organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Details of what the group discussed have not been made public but according to IrishCentral.com, each philanthropist was given 15 minutes to talk about their view of the future and how the team, which has donated billions to charitable causes, can help at a time when charity donations are falling. What is particularly compelling about the group assembled, which also reportedly included Eli Broad and Michael Bloomberg, is that most of them have their own foundation and areas of focus when it comes to philanthropy. I can't help but imagine this meeting as some sort of Justice League scenario complete with flapping capes. Sounds more compelling than any summer blockbuster.

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Tags: bill gates, BillGates, oprah winfrey, OprahWinfrey, warren buffett, WarrenBuffett

Number of World's Billionaires in Sharp Decline

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

My colleague Deidre Woollard just reported that the number of millionaire households in the U.S. has shrunk to its lowest level since 2003. To that we can now add that the number of billionaires in the world has also seen a steep decline.

According to Forbes' newly-released annual list of the world's billionaires, there are now only 793 billionaires around the globe, down from 1,125 a year ago. That means 332 people lost their billionaire status.

This year the exclusive group has an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months, making for a loss of some $1.4 trillion. Americans now account for 44% of the money and 45% of the list's slots, up 7 and 3 percentage points from last year, respectively. Some billionaires have fared better than others, though most have lost masses of money.

Bill Gates lost $18 billion but regained his title as the world's richest man with a $40 billion fortune. Warren Buffett, last year's No. 1, saw his fortune decline $25 billion as shares of Berkshire Hathaway fell nearly 50% in 12 months, and is in the No. 2 slot with $37 billion. Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helú maintains his spot in the top three but lost $25 billion, and is now worth $35 billion.

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