Buffett gives record $2.1 billion donation to Gates foundation
Bloomberg
11:20 p.m. CDT, July 15, 2014
NEW YORK — Warren Buffett, the second-richest person in the United States, made his largest single charitable contribution ever when he donated $2.1 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. gave 16.6 million Class B shares Monday in an annual gift to the foundation, where he is a trustee, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The donation beat last year’s record gift of $2 billion, when he gave 17.5 million shares. The stock has gained 8.8 percent this year through the close of trading yesterday to $128.98.
Buffett, 83, has vowed through the Giving Pledge initiative to give away most of his net worth, which is more than $60 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest people. Along with Microsoft co-founder Gates, the world’s richest man, he has urged other ultra-wealthy people to give away their money.
“I will give 99 percent, but the other 1 percent is way more than enough,” Buffett said June 9 at the Edison Electric Institute annual convention in Las Vegas. “I have never given a dollar that caused me to give up something I wanted to buy.”
Most of Buffett’s donated money goes to the Gates Foundation, which focuses on hunger, poverty and education. He earmarked 10 million Class B Berkshire shares for the Seattle- based charity in 2006 and gives 5 percent of the remaining total each year. The shares were split 50-1 in 2010.