Warren Buffett donates Billions to Goodwill Activities
Warren Buffett, US-American investor and the world’s second richest man who’s now worth $44 billion just announced in Fortune and on his website that he wants to give away 85% of his money to five foundations. The stocks of his Berkshire Hathaway fortune are worth over $40 billion. Most of it will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organisation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates and Buffet are close friends, and Bill, the richest man of the world, is also planning to give away 90 – 95 % of his wealth to the foundation (see our blog-entry). Gates is fascinated by the proposal of his friend and will make him the third trustee of the foundation.
Buffed, 75, said, he and his wife (who died in 2004) “agreed with Andrew Carnegie, who said that huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society.” And: “Neither Susie – his wife – nor I ever thought we should pass huge amounts of money along to our children… I would argue that when your kids have all the advantages anyway, in terms of how they grow up and the opportunities they have for education, including what they learn at home – I would say it’s neither right nor rational to be flooding them with money.”
And about Bill and Melinda: “I’ve seen them give presentations about its programs, and I’m always amazed at the enthusiasm and passion and energy they’re pouring into their work. They’ve gone at it, you might say, with both head and heart. Bill reads many thousands of pages annually keeping up with medical advances and means of delivering help. Melinda, often with Bill along, travels the world looking at how well good intentions are being converted into good results. Life has dealt a terrible hand to literally billions of people around the world, and Bill and Melinda are bent on reducing that inequity to the extent they possibly can.”
These extraordinary examples show how persons with financial resources can use their money to initiate acts of good will, for the well-being of many. And even if our resources are small, we can use our influence to create changes for good.
