Warren Buffet Donates Millions of Dollars to Charities for Thanksgiving

Renowned investor and business tycoon, Warren Buffett, has made significant charitable donations, handing out family-linked nonprofit organizations a total of 2.4 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares. This admirable gesture, carried out on the eve of Thanksgiving, was worth an estimated $870 million.

Detailed in a Berkshire Hathaway press release, the philanthropic donations were directed towards The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation according to a press release by Berkshire Hathaway. Such contributions are a continuation of Buffett’s lifetime pledges made in 2006 and will endure until his demise.

Of the 2.4 million shares, The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation received more than half, with the remainder being split equally among the three other foundations. The act of generosity wasn’t an isolated one. Earlier this year, Buffett donated over 3.2 million Class B shares to the four nonprofits and 10.45 million to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

He also made similar contributions during the Thanksgiving period the previous year.

Buffett, whose personal fortune is estimated at $120.6 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, stated that his children, who are expected to be executors of his will and trustees of the charitable trust that will receive 99%-plus of his wealth, share his belief against dynastic wealth.

“My children, along with their father, have a common belief that dynastic wealth, though both legal and common in much of the world including the United States, is not desirable. Moreover, we have had many opportunities to observe that being rich does not make you either wise or evil. We also agree that capitalism – whatever its weaknesses, including the vast disparities in wealth and political influence that it delivers somewhat capriciously to its citizens – has worked wonders and continues to work wonders. The United States is exhibit A for that belief, and the four of us feel lucky that we beat very long odds when we were born in the U.S.”

Warren Buffet, via Berkshire Hathaway Press Release