Warren Buffett's $716 million donation to family foundation puts him on top philanthropist list

Buffett made the donation to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which has awarded college scholarships to Nebraska high school students for more than 50 years. Buffett’s donation was the fourth-largest contribution made to a beneficiary or purpose this year, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, made the largest single donation of the year, to the tune of $1.1 billion, to the Hastings Fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Hastings and Quillin also made the fifth-largest donation at $502.4 million to the same fund.

Buffett has long prioritized charitable donations. Each year for nearly two decades, he has given some of his fortune to his family’s foundations along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This Thanksgiving, Buffett gave more than $1.1 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to four of his family’s foundations: The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, his daughter Susie Buffett’s Sherwood Foundation, his son Howard’s The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and his son Peter’s NoVo Foundation.

The gifts last month mean Buffett now holds 206,363 Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares — a 56.6% decrease from 2006, when the billionaire first pledged he would give away his fortune to the foundations.

Despite those gifts, Buffett still ranks No. 6 on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people, his current fortune is estimated by the magazine at $133 billion. He has said more than 99% of his wealth is in Berkshire stock.

The donations have supercharged the Buffett children’s philanthropic activity, the patriarch wrote last month.

“Susie and I had long encouraged our children in small philanthropic activities and had been pleased with their enthusiasm, diligence and results,” Buffett wrote. “The children have now more than justified our hopes and, upon my death, will have full responsibility for gradually distributing all of my Berkshire holdings.”

Buffett also has ties to Ruth Gottesman, who tied for the second-largest gift of 2024 on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list. Her $1 billion donation was dedicated to financial aid at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

At this year’s shareholders meeting in Omaha on May 4, Buffett noted Gottesman’s gift, saying it made tuition at the medical school in New York City free as of August.

Buffett also noted Gottesman made the donation without being solicited.

“She just decided that she’d rather have 100-plus, closer to 150 eventually, of students be able to start out debt-free and proceed in life,” Buffett said.