Buffett drops the Gates Foundation from his annual donations
Warren Buffett gave nothing to the Gates Foundation in this year’s donation of Berkshire Hathaway shares, instead directing nearly $6 billion to four foundations linked to his own family: the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation. It is the first time since 2006 that the Gates Foundation has been left out of his midyear giving. Over that period Buffett had donated more than $47 billion in Berkshire stock to the organization, making him by far its largest outside benefactor.
The omission follows reporting that Buffett withheld his customary gift while awaiting the outcome of a review into the foundation’s past ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a March interview Buffett said he had not spoken with Bill Gates since the matter surfaced. The practical effect is significant for the foundation’s long-term planning: Buffett’s annual gifts were a load-bearing part of its funding, and their loss forces it to lean harder on its endowment and Gates’s own contributions as it winds down operations later this decade.