Additional Information on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Additional Information on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Overview


On June 25, 2006, Warren Buffett (who was then the world’s richest individual, with an estimated net worth approaching $60 billion) pledged to give the Gates Foundation approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares through annual contributions disbursed over multiple years. In 2006, Buffett gave Gates 500,000 of those 10 million shares — or 5% of the total — and those half-million shares had an aggregate value of approximately $1.5 billion. By the terms of Buffett’s arrangement with Gates, the former would continue to give the Foundation 5% of the remaining earmarked shares in the summer of each subsequent year (i.e., 475,000 in 2007; 451,250 in 2008; etc.). Buffett dictated this arrangement so that his yearly donations would not simply increase the Gates Foundation’s endowment, but rather would work as a matching contribution, thereby doubling the Foundation’s annual giving.

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