Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
Nonprofit organization in Omaha, United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation is a charitable organization formed 1964 in Omaha, Nebraska, by investor and industrialist Warren Buffett as a vehicle to manage his charitable giving.[1] It was known simply as the Buffett Foundation until 2004, when it was renamed in honor of Susan Buffett, who died that year.
| Formation | 1964 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Warren Buffett |
| Founded at | Omaha, Nebraska |
Key people | Allen Greenberg (Executive Director) |
| Website | https://buffettscholarships.org/ |
As of 2014, the Foundation ranked fourth among family foundations by grants paid. It invests heavily in reproductive health and family planning grants across the world, including substantial investments in abortion and contraceptives.[2][3] According to Mother Jones, the Foundation is known for its focus on abortion access and for its "secrecy...often appearing under grant acknowledgements only as 'an anonymous donor.'"[4]
Management
History
Susan Buffett's will bestowed about $2.5 billion on the foundation, to which her husband's further gifts of $315 million have been added.[6]
Giving
The Buffett Foundation does not accept unsolicited requests, preferring instead to seek out worthy recipients on its own.[5]
Of the $17.6 million that the Buffett Foundation donated in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999, nearly $3.8 million went to Planned Parenthood, among its top contributors. It also involves itself directly at the clinic level.
International Projects Assistance Services (IPAS), based in Carrboro, North Carolina, manufactures a handheld suction pump used in developing countries to initiate abortions. The Buffett Foundation has backed IPAS for years. Its 1999 contribution of $2.5 million was part of a five-year, $20 million commitment that will enable IPAS to double its capacity.[7]
The foundation provides grants to a large range of U.S. and a few international organizations, including the Willows Foundation in Turkey (€2.3 million), the World Food Programme in Italy (€800,000), Marie Stopes International in the UK (€571,000); and Grupo de Informacion en Reproduccion Elegida in Mexico (€196,000).[8]
By 2008, the Foundation had nearly $4 billion in assets. In 2007, Omaha's Building Bright Futures initiative promised financial support to low-income students in the area who wanted to attend college.[9]
Abortion funding
In the 1990s, the Buffett Foundation helped finance the development of the abortion drug RU-486. Between 2001 and 2014, the foundation contributed over $1.5 billion to abortion related causes, including at least $427 million to Planned Parenthood and $168 million to the National Abortion Federation. It has also funded the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks demographic and legislative trends, and Gynuity Health Projects, which focuses on medication abortion.[4]
Gates Foundation
Warren Buffett's intention was originally to leave 99% of his estate to the Buffett Foundation, but in June 2006 he announced that he would give 85% of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation instead. Buffett stated that he changed his mind because he has grown to admire Gates's foundation over the years; he believed that the Gates Foundation would be able to use his money effectively because it was already scaled-up.[10]
"Susan's Foundation" is to receive a bequest of about $3 billion over a span of many years.[citation needed]
Source of wealth
The vast bulk of Buffett's wealth consists of his personal holdings in Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate of which he controls almost 40% directly, and which he has managed personally since the mid-1960s.