Description
The Buffett Foundation is a charitable organization formed 1964 in Omaha, Nebraska, by investor and industrialist Warren Buffett as a vehicle to manage his charitable giving. It was renamed the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation in honor of his wife, Susan Buffett, who died in 2004.
As of 2014, the Buffet Foundation ranked fourth among family foundations by grants paid. It invests heavily in reproductive health and family planning grants across the world, including substantial investments in abortion and contraceptives. According to Mother Jones, the Buffett Foundation is known for its focus on abortion access and for its "secrecy...often appearing under grant acknowledgements only as 'an anonymous donor.'"
Management
Allen Greenberg, the executive director of the foundation, was married from 1983 to 1995 to the Buffetts' daughter, Susie, who is chair. The Buffett Foundation was set up in 1964 but had no director until Greenberg took the job in 1987.
History
Susan Buffett's will bestowed about $2.5 billion on the foundation, to which her husband's further gifts of $315 million have been added.
