Warren Buffett donates record $5.3B Berkshire shares to charity

[JoshTko]

i.e. Buffet donates money to entities that are 100% controlled by friends and family.

For example: The ~$400M donation to Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation give out about 200 scholarships per year at a max of $10k per scholarship ($2M/yr total). At a 10% rate of return (BRK actually does way higher) the foundation earns $40M/yr. So only a tiny fraction of gains are given out. Since the scholarships are $10K max per scholarship the average payout per year is probably way lower than $2M/yr. So really, what is the purpose of this foundation?

[blackhawkC17]

The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation already spends $500 million annually and has doled out over $6 billion in total donations [1]. A simple Google search would have prevented writing easily falsifiable info..

1- https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/476...

[cen4]

Loss Aversion is a feature of the chimp brain but it turns into a bug after the chimp accumulates too many bananas.

[next_xibalba]

Between this and his announcement about the family charitable trust [1], I wonder if he is sensing the end is near.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/28/investing/warren-buffett-gate...

[ITB]

No need for sensing. It’s on the actuarial tables.

[alexcos]

He will be 94 in August. He lost his friend and business partner, Charlie Munger, last year at 99. Maybe that was somewhat of a memento mori for him

[cityzen]

More of a “friends and family” round if you will. Fuck all those other charities, only rich people and their kids know how to use that money.

Buffett donated 9.93 million shares to the Gates Foundation, and has donated more than $43 billion of Berkshire shares there overall. He also donated 993,035 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, and 695,122 shares to each of three charities led by his children Howard, Susan and Peter: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.

[hipadev23]

The foundations you mentioned exist to redistribute that money to other foundations and initiatives. They’re better vehicles to make grants instead of Warren/Berkshire trying to be experts on charitable donations.

This is literally all public record, you can see every single grant made by each foundation.

[tim333]

If Warren hadn't given his Berkshire shares away he'd still have 474,998 currently worth $290bn and be the world's richest man by quite a margin. He's done good with the investing. I think one of the reasons for giving it away is to avoid all the hype about that.

[divbzero]

Buffett has been donating regularly since 2006. The record amount donated probably reflects Berkshire Hathaway’s record high stock price which surpassed $600,000 per share this year.

[rKarpinski]

His heirs will wield a tremendous amount of amount of influence on society from controlling these foundations. Is it really that much different than just giving it to them outright aside from limiting conspicuous consumption?

[tim333]

The bulk has gone to Bill Gates charity for better or worse.

[woleium]

I could be pretty conspicuous if I had a salary of 1.2 million

[demondemidi]

To think when his kids inherit all the stocks he owns, the purchase price is reset to the market price at inheritance. Which means 10s of billions of tax free stock sales.

[orionsbelt]

You are ignoring the estate tax.

[pininja]

How does that work?

[jonas21]

Only after they pay the 40% estate tax on it (which is higher than the 20% capital gains tax + 3.8% net investment tax that they would be saving).

[bluenomatterwho]

You are clearly not informed, he specifically left his kids out. They received shares from his father, but not him. One son is a musician who has spent it in the arts already.

[rvnx]

There is no better charity than charity to yourself

[bitwize]

Kinda reminds me of Larry Ellison's charitable contributions to the Foundation to Extend Larry Ellison's Lifespan.

[chx]

Since this is led by the Gates Foundation, I would recommend https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#g... on them.