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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

High hopes for Buffett’s gift


Warren Buffett answers a question as Melinda French Gates, center, and Bill Gates, left, look on, Monday in New York.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
From Wire Reports The Spokesman-Review

Warren Buffett’s contribution of about $1.5 billion a year to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be used to seek cures for the world’s worst diseases and improve American education, Bill Gates said Monday.

“There is no reason we can’t cure the top 20 diseases,” Gates said while appearing with Buffett during a donation ceremony at the New York Public Library.

The Buffett and Gates families, as well as onlookers, were beaming as the so-called Oracle of Omaha officially made his benevolence a reality.

“There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way,” said Buffett. He presented the biggest gift to Gates, and $1 billion donations to his own foundation and the foundations run by each of his three children.

Buffett said he had made some suggestions to his children about how to use the money. But “I think their judgment above the ground is going to be a lot better than mine 6 feet below the ground,” he said at a later appearance.

Buffett said his children have known all along that much of their family’s wealth would be given back to society. “They consider themselves lucky. They don’t consider themselves quite as lucky as if they had a father with a different view.”

In a letter dated Monday, Buffett had informed Bill and Melinda Gates that the first donation of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock would go to the foundation next month.

The Seattle-based foundation, which has assets of $30.6 billion, spends money on world health, poverty and increasing access to technology in developing countries. In the United States, it focuses on education and technology in public libraries.

Buffett’s gift is “really significant,” not just for its size but for its potential to encourage other giving, said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, a nonprofit coalition of about 550 charities, foundations and corporate giving programs that includes the Gates Foundation.

“I’m sure there are lots of young, wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes and who are watching this very carefully,” she said.

The money from Buffett, who is 75 but considered strong and healthy, comes with a significant catch. The letter says Buffett wants all his money to be distributed in the year it is donated, not added to the foundation’s assets for future giving. The foundation gave away $1.36 billion in 2005, so the Buffett commitment would effectively double its spending.

Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, announced earlier this month that he would be stepping back from his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft Corp. in July 2008 so he can spend more time on the foundation.

Buffett, the world’s second-richest man, said in an interview with Fortune magazine that the timing of the two announcements — one week apart — was just “happenstance.”

At the Gates Foundation, Buffett’s gift is sure to be a big change. But Gates’ eventual arrival there full time is likely to be an even more earthshaking event.

Staffers are already accustomed to fielding probing questions from Gates. Now they’re bracing for more.

The Seattle-based foundation up to now has had little of its founder’s face time — about one day a month on site — given the demands of Gates’s schedule as founder and chairman and chief software engineer of Microsoft.

Even so, it already has changed the face of philanthropy by merging charity with the rigor of business management.

Some predict that Gates will bring his fabled micromanagement style with him. “He’s definitely not a laissez-faire kind of guy,” said Esther Dyson, editor of the tech review Release 1.0. Gates is a voracious reader of science and history who questions subordinates relentlessly about their projects, she said. “If he respects you, he’ll argue with you. If not, he ignores you,” she said. “If he says, ‘That’s stupid,’ it means he cares” about a project, she added.

The Gates Foundation is setting an example for mega foundations in seeking to do more than merely fund projects. It also seeks to alter the landscape of poverty and disease in developing countries. This reflects a growing view that health and welfare are directly linked to development and global security issues.