Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, donated a record $5.3 billion in company shares to five charities on June 28, 2024. This marks his largest annual donation to date. Buffett converted 8,674 Class A shares into nearly 13 million Class B shares for the contribution.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation received the lion’s share, with 9.93 million shares. The remaining shares were divided among the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and three charities run by his children, Howard, Susan, and Peter Buffett. In 2006, Buffett pledged to give away the majority of his wealth, which he began accumulating when he took over Berkshire in 1965, to these charities on a yearly basis.
After this year’s donation, Buffett still holds 207,963 Berkshire A shares and 2,586 B shares, with a combined value of around $130 billion. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Buffett confirmed that most of his wealth will be transferred to a new charitable trust overseen by his children after his death. This will mark the end of further donations to the Gates Foundation.
Buffett resigned as a trustee of the Gates Foundation in June 2021.
Buffett’s historic charity share donation
He stressed the importance of helping the less fortunate and pledged transparency about distributing his assets through a publicly accessible will.
The Buffett siblings have distinguished themselves from other top philanthropists by giving away a high percentage of their foundations’ assets each year. While the IRS requires foundations to distribute 5% of their assets annually, the Buffett children’s foundations have far exceeded this, with payout rates ranging from 28% to 94% in recent years. According to tax filings, Howard and Peter’s foundations each gave away half of their net assets in 2022, while Susie’s Sherwood Foundation disbursed most of its net assets.
Despite their substantial contributions, the Buffett Children’s Foundations maintain a relatively low profile because they do not hold onto most of their contributions. As of their most recent tax filings, each foundation’s assets were under $760 million, which is significant but below the threshold for the country’s largest foundations. As trustees of the new charitable trust that will manage Warren Buffett’s wealth, the siblings must make unanimous decisions on how the funds are distributed.
So far, each sibling has focused on different areas of giving. For example, Howard has emphasized food and agricultural assistance in Ukraine and other countries facing food insecurity. The future looks promising for the Buffett family’s philanthropic efforts, with their substantial resources and commitment expected to drive significant positive change in various global issues for years to come.
