Investor and billionaire Warren Buffett gave $541.5 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation in 2023, which was named after his wife who passed away in 2004, and is primarily dedicated to women’s reproductive rights and education.
According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the biggest of charitable donations, Buffett’s contribution was the largest of the year. All of the donations from individual donors or their foundations over the course of the year added up to $3.5 billion.
Four universities received some of the largest gifts in 2023, along with four scientific research institutes, a healthcare system, a family foundation, and one racial justice group, as stated by the Chronicle’s report.
Their list is limited to 11 gifts because of monetary ties, with eight of the donors being multi billionaires, and their combined net worth being $305.1 billion.
Warren Buffett, whose net worth is estimated to be about $119 billion, gave 1.5 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class “B” stock valued at $541.5 million to the foundation named after his late first wife. Buffett created the grantmaker in 1964 to manage the family’s charitable expenditures, and two of his three children presently serve on the foundation’s board, which is currently led by Buffett’s former son-in-law. The organization backs women’s reproductive health but also provides scholarships for students in Nebraska, where the family is originally from.
The donation was a special contribution that Buffett announced back in November, as opposed to the regular annual contributions he makes to the foundation and several other grantmakers, which are payments toward multibillion-dollar pledges he declared in 2006.
Followed by Buffett’s donation on the list is one from the mathematician and hedge fund founder James Simons and his wife, Marilyn, to Stony Brook University in New York. The couple gave $500 million to the state university through their Simons foundation in order to support the school’s endowment and to boost scholarships, professorships, research, and clinical care in their STEM programs.
Tied for third on the list is a contribution from Ross Brown, the founder of Cryogenic Industries, an industrial equipment manufacturer. In November, Brown pledged $400 million to the California Institute of Technology to launch the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences, which will be fulfilled through his family foundation and a donor-advised fund.
The other person tied for third is Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, who pledged $400 million to the 1803 fund for the initiative of Rebuild Albina. The effort is dedicated to reviving the economic and cultural prosperity of Albina, a historic area of Portland, Oregon, that was once a thriving black neighborhood before it became neglected as a result of structural discrimination in the 1970s.
To learn more about the Chronicle’s annual rankings of donations, you can check out their database of gifts over $1 million that is updated weekly.
