Warren Buffet donates $1.5 billion to charity

[Ajax]

http://www.quote.com/news/wpArticle.aspx?id=10402

"Buffett Donates $1.5B to Charities
7/8/2011 3:17:54 PM
Investor billionaire, Warren Buffet has donated more than $1.78 billion to multiple charities, with the major chunk of the donation going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.



The latest donations are part of his public announcement in 2006 to donate more than 99 percent of his wealth to charities. The news comes from the 2010 filings by Buffet with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The filed papers show that Buffett has donated more than 23.31 million of his class B shares in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK). Out of these shares, the major part; 19.34 million shares were transferred to the Gates Foundation.



The other charities that received a part of the donations included the charities named after his late wife, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and other charities named after their children Peter, Howard and Susan.



The shares of the Berkshire Hathaway were donated on Wednesday by Buffett, according to the filings with the Securities and Filings department. The shares on Wednesday were rated at $76.52 per share. The cost of Class A shares of Berckshire Hathway is currently at $1,840.



Till date the 80 year old billionaire has donated more than $11 billion in the name of charity with his shares in Berkshire Hathaway. The major part of this huge philanthropic undertaking was given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that was set up by the co-Founder of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bill Gates and a director of Berkshire along with the wife of Gates. The Gates foundation is dedicated to the improvement of the health, education and poverty problems around the world. Gates has also pledged a major part of his personal income to philanthropic causes and he and Buffett are the leading figures in the American philanthropic font.



The Gates Foundation employs more than 900 people and spends billion in various non-profit causes. According to last year’s reports, the foundation spent around $2.6 billion in various parts of the world and also has $37.1 billion in endowment.



Buffett was on March named the world’s third richest person with a personal income of close to $50 billion, by the Forbes magazine. Gates had been pushed down to number five on that list because of his own large donations that pushed him down the list.



Starting in 2006, Buffett donated $1.9 in the first year, $2.1 billion in 2007 and 2008, $1.51 billion in 2009 and $1.9 billion last year."

 

[Kristine..]

Thanks Ajax

What a wonderful thing, for an individual and his family to have achieved this in his own working life and to be able to benefit so many

I read 'the Snowball' - a biography of Buffet, last year and enjoyed every page.

He has certainly enjoyed making this money and has continued to live his own modest life

A magnificent achievment

Kristine

 

[our obsession]

Just incredible.

What a legacy of achievement, doing and giving.

 

[Deltaberry]

Now let's see Dick Smith show more action and less talking.

 

[Kristine..]

Goodness Gracious Me.

So, Deltaberry, you don't think that giving away $1,000,000 is 'more action'?

Dick Smith is a great Australian philanthropist. Let me know when you are going to be giving away $1,000,000 and I shall be there to applaud you.

For Heaven's sake, if you can't say something positive for once perhaps you could try not saying anything at all

Lotsa love
Kristine

 

[Token Funder]

Goodness Gracious Me.

So, Deltaberry, you don't think that giving away $1,000,000 is 'more action'?

Dick Smith is a great Australian philanthropist. Let me know when you are going to be giving away $1,000,000 and I shall be there to applaud you.

For Heaven's sake, if you can't say something positive for once perhaps you could try not saying anything at all

Lotsa love
Kristine

Quite right. Smith is a very rare example of the self-made millionaire philanthropist in Australia. Say what you will about the septics, but they have a history of corporate and personal philanthropy that puts Australia to shame.

 

[IndexFund]

Warren Buffett is a stooge and Berkshire Hathaway is really a 1920s style pool for the big banks. It was all an "American Pie" ruse to shyster the public into the idiotic "buy and hold" mantra.

Under buy and hold, Wall St. takes your money and uses it to gamble. If they make money, they keep most of it. If they lose money, they only lose your money, not theirs. It's the ponzi way our economy has worked for the last 3 decades.

Think about it. "Warren Buffett" bought cheap when everyone else was fearful and sold high when everyone else was optimistic, typical of Wall St. insiders. But in recent years as the market has been flat or down big, and the economy has tanked, Ole' Warren has bought at the top and everywhere in between trying to help prop the market up.

Whoever "Warren Buffett" is, he is nothing but a conduit for the banks. The ultimate propaganda campaign.

http://the-classic-liberal.com/warren-buffett-scam/

PS Buffett is not the world's 3rd richest man, in reality he is somewhere in the 100s.

Rothschilds, Rockefeller's, Carnegies', Schiffs... now these guys pretty much put Buffett on their pay role.

 

[BayView]

Now let's see Dick Smith show more action and less talking.

If only Australia had another 1,000 Dick Smiths - especially in Gubbmint.

 

[redwing]

Update

Buffett makes annual stock donations to charities

Billionaire Warren Buffett gives nearly 23M shares of his company's stock to 5 foundations

Billionaire Warren Buffett is giving five charities more than $2.6 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock as part of his overall plan to give away his fortune gradually.
Buffett announced the annual gifts Monday. The biggest block of Class B shares of Berkshire stock worth $2 billion is going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Buffett also gave 1.75 million shares to his own foundation and 1.2 million shares to each of his three children's foundations.

 

[cimbom]

I'm a bit skeptical about a lot of these really rich people only donating money to their own (or their rich buddies) charities

 

[Corey Batt]

I'm a bit skeptical about a lot of these really rich people only donating money to their own (or their rich buddies) charities

Why is that? Do you believe the Gates Foundation's funds are not really going to charitable causes?

And they don't only donate to their own or their buddies charities, the other donations are generally just not newsworthy.

 

[cimbom]

I'm not saying much of it doesn't go to charity but I think they're getting some benefit out of it as well. Can't you pay yourself a "salary" if you run a charity or claim that there are "administration costs" involved? If you donate to say the Red Cross then that money is completely out of your control/possession.

 

[Corey Batt]

I'm not saying much of it doesn't go to charity but I think they're getting some benefit out of it as well. Can't you pay yourself a "salary" if you run a charity or claim that there are "administration costs" involved? If you donate to say the Red Cross then that money is completely out of your control/possession.

Which is completely available for everyone to see and is rigorously audited..

I don't think anyone is going to donate $billions to charity to weasel back their money through a salary.

If I had substantial enough funds to provide serious philanthropic commitments, I would run my own charity than donate to others. It gives you the ability to target areas that you care about, or fill gaps that are not being seen too sufficiently. Likewise most of these larger donaters are entrepreneurs, who would be used to having their hands on the helm, than being directed by a larger organisation above them - just makes sense to me..

 

[cimbom]

I guess so. I would probably do both if I was in that position

 

[robbiejuve]

Rothschilds, Rockefeller's, Carnegies', Schiffs... now these guys pretty much put Buffett on their pay role.

Are you seriously comparing what one man did in his lifetime to a family that originates from the 18th century?

Convenient you have these conspiracies on Buffet yet make no mention of the fact that the most profitable move the Rothschild’s ever did was finding out the battle of Waterloo had been won before the market did and buying on that news.

Pretty easy to win when you know something no one else does. No?

 

[Peter 14.7]

I'm not saying much of it doesn't go to charity but I think they're getting some benefit out of it as well. Can't you pay yourself a "salary" if you run a charity or claim that there are "administration costs" involved? If you donate to say the Red Cross then that money is completely out of your control/possession.

Bill Gates was on Q & A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qROud0hQUYw

His donations are fair and wide and focus on Big Picture stuff like vaccinations in hard to get countries like Afghanistan. He uses committees of individual experts to asses claims and then fund. This removes the need of group think and western think to problems that are often 3 rd world. Clean Water, Condoms, etc..

By donating to this fund, Buffet uses and effective mechanism already in place without excessive overheads or duplication.

Often the problems are easy but huge in scale and hence cost like 10M free vaccination at delivery cost of $10 so , $100M in cost.

In the western world, as small players, we focus on issues we comprehend and hence donate money for food in droughts, or clothing in disasters, etc..

Bill Gate money goes to this cause but often via building a road to those places so the donations done sit on the docks rotting. We assume there is a road. He knows there is not.

If serious, see the video as he comments on Government v Charity such as his. without saying he confirms being SO big he can get past the 3 rd world corruption and bureaucracy by being direct.

FYI Peter 14.7

 

[DavidMc]

Now let's see Dick Smith show more action and less talking.

Yeah, I'll agree with you on lots of things, but not on this one. Dick Smith has done great work here, including losing millions trying to support Aussie growers and Australian made food.

Dick Smith foods is basically bleeding money like crazy, it's seems that people would rather save the 30c and have the South American peanuts / jobs created.

 

[one world]

Dick Smith is one of Australia's smartest patriots. Although business is business, its the mendacity that gets to me.

My beef with Dick Smith is that he became rich by selling us foreign made goods through his stores in the 70s and 80s. Back in those days, when it suited him, Dick wasn't exhorting us to buy Australian or whipping up paranoia about Australia being taken over by foreigners.

Dick Smith's electronic stores have since been sold to Woolworths. He still gets a % cut of each dollar we spend there. Most of the goods are *shock horror* foreign made.

About Dick Smith Foods. My understanding is that Dick Smith foods has been sold to Sanitarium. A nice little earner for Mr Dick, to be sure. And good on him for having a go - that's business, after all.

Unfortunately, for all of Dick's bleating about why we should buy Australian, Sanitarium is not 100% Australian owned! A slap on our collective patriotic faces from someone who spouts his fair share of nationalistic guff.

About charity. Tax reasons aside, it is nice that Dick donates as much as he does. But it would be even nicer if he did it more silently, as the rest of us do. One does not see Warren Buffett or Bill Gates on midday TV boasting about how much they have given away to the poor and starving.

 

[chindonly]

Warren Buffett is a stooge and Berkshire Hathaway is really a 1920s style pool for the big banks. It was all an "American Pie" ruse to shyster the public into the idiotic "buy and hold" mantra.

Under buy and hold, Wall St. takes your money and uses it to gamble. If they make money, they keep most of it. If they lose money, they only lose your money, not theirs. It's the ponzi way our economy has worked for the last 3 decades.

Think about it. "Warren Buffett" bought cheap when everyone else was fearful and sold high when everyone else was optimistic, typical of Wall St. insiders. But in recent years as the market has been flat or down big, and the economy has tanked, Ole' Warren has bought at the top and everywhere in between trying to help prop the market up.

Whoever "Warren Buffett" is, he is nothing but a conduit for the banks. The ultimate propaganda campaign.

http://the-classic-liberal.com/warren-buffett-scam/

PS Buffett is not the world's 3rd richest man, in reality he is somewhere in the 100s.

Rothschilds, Rockefeller's, Carnegies', Schiffs... now these guys pretty much put Buffett on their pay role.

You obviously have no idea who Buffett is, and what he has done.

Your comments are comical at best. I suggest you educate yourself a bit before slandering others.

 

[one world]

It's unfair to question Buffet's genius. Let me give you some idea of his dedication and capacity for hard work:

Back in the mid 50s, long before he became famous, he would park his car outside a chemical company and count the number of railcars going in and out of the facility in the freezing cold. That gave him a more accurate idea of the company's business than the company's official accounts.

I take my hat off to that!

And let's not forget his partner, Mr Charlie Munger, one of the youngest kids to enter Harvard Law School and one of the smartest men in the USA. Truth be told, Buffett has a small team, but a damn good one. He hires the best of the best, regardless of their origin.

I especially respect the way in which he SILENTLY gives his money away. Unlike some of our more visible iconoclasts, he doesn't show up on the US equivalent of the Midday Show boasting of all the money he has donated. The only time he talks about charity in public is when he tries to persuade other businessmen to do the same.

Omaha is poorly serviced by the aviation industry. His biggest extravagance is his plane. He only bought it so he could visit some of his more obscure holdings. Got a pretty good deal on it too, and leases it out when he is not using it.