Giving away a fortune: What could Warren Buffett’s adult children support?

(AP) — Warren Buffett’s adult children — Susie, Howard and Peter Buffett — have long track records as philanthropists, giving away more than $15 billion of their dad’s money through their foundations since 2006. Now that their father has entrusted them to donate the rest of his fortune following his death, the next generation of Buffetts is poised to become one of the largest donors in the country, tasked with giving away around $144 billion, by today’s estimates, within 10 years. The next generation of Buffetts have supported different causes over the years, but their foundations share some characteristics. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation Named after Warren Buffett’s first wife, it has donated $8.4 billion mainly to reproductive health care organizations, according to the charitable grants database Candid. Susie Buffett’s ex-husband, Allen Greenberg, is the foundation’s president, Susie Buffett is the board chair and Peter Buffett is a member of the board, according to its most recent tax filings. The foundation’s largest grantee is the nonprofit Buffett Early Childhood Fund, of which Susie Buffett is board chair. Since then, it’s provided “no strings attached” funding without any annual application or report, said Helene Stebbins, its executive director. “You talk about trust-based philanthropy — and there’s a lot of work being done to encourage philanthropy to go in that direction right now — Susie and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund have been doing it for 20 years,” Stebbins said. “Howard was particularly interested in addressing the factors that were driving people to leave rural communities in Central America and Mexico and risk everything to migrate to the U.S. and that’s where our vision really came together,” said Erica Dahl-Bredine, a senior adviser at CRS. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Howard Buffett visited within weeks and reconfigured the foundation’s plans to respond to the humanitarian crisis and impact of the war on agriculture. “Every time I leave Ukraine to return home, I ask myself the same question: If we do not stand with Ukraine as they fight to defend their freedom, then what value do we place on our own freedom?” he wrote in the foundation’s 2023 report. NoVo Foundation For many years, Peter Buffett and his wife, Jennifer, focused their grantmaking on supporting girls around the world, including the “Girl Effect,” campaign with the Nike Foundation. In 2020, they made a major change in strategic approach, laying off a significant part of their staff and spinning off or planning to wind down much of their funding supporting girls rights and combating gender-based violence. “We had to make very difficult decisions around what was creating meaningful change and what was fighting against a system that appeared futile,” Peter Buffett wrote in an email to the AP. “We were also always concerned about dependency on a single funder and we’re happy to see other funders coming into the field.” Since 2022, the foundation has increased its support for Native American organizations, which Peter Buffet has been interested in since he composed some of the music for the film “Dances With Wolves” and wrote the score for the miniseries “500 Nations.” His foundation now also funds projects like a community farm, grain mill and radio station near Kingston, New York, where Peter and Jennifer Buffett live, as part of its support for sustainable, local communities. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/fd195032b2253e2f791fc3e40df5c771