Experts: Buffett May Spur Philanthropy

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's pledge to give most of his money away to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has experts predicting it could energize the nonprofit sector and possibly spawn a new wave of philanthropy.

''It might draw in new philanthropists, new people who are wealthy who haven't given their money yet,'' said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, a nonprofit coalition of about 550 charities, foundations and corporate giving programs. The Gates Foundation is a member of the group, based in Washington, D.C.

Citing Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and W.K.K. Kellogg, Aviv said: ''The great business leaders of the past came into giving and changed the face of philanthropy, and this can do the same.''

Buffett, the world's second-richest man, announced Sunday that he will soon begin giving about $1.5 billion a year to the Gates Foundation, essentially doubling the pot of money the world's largest philanthropy doles out each year.

Some observers found it unusual that Buffett chose to entrust his wealth to an established charity rather than start a foundation that would bear his name and support his own hand-picked causes.

''It's an interesting statement that a donor of his stature has decided to team up with another donor of similar stature. Usually with that kind of wealth, donors tend to do it by themselves _ create entities by themselves, want to manage those things by themselves,'' said Doug Bauer, senior vice president of New York-based Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, an independent nonprofit that helps people, families, foundations and companies develop and manage giving programs.

Buffett, 75, befriended Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp., in the early 1990s. The two play bridge together, and Gates, 50, sits on the board of Buffett's investment company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. With his gift, Buffett will become a trustee of the Seattle-based Gates Foundation.

In a letter to Bill and Melinda Gates, Buffett said he greatly admires the foundation's work. With an endowment of $30.6 billion, the foundation spends money on world health, poverty and increasing access to technology in developing countries. In the United States, it focuses on public schools and technology in public libraries.

Buffett said he wants his money to deepen the foundation's ability to invest in the problems it's already set out to tackle rather than broadening its mission.

''I'm sure there are lots of young, wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes and who are watching this very carefully,'' Aviv said. ''These business leaders are icons.''

On Monday, Buffett said he wasn't leaving the bulk of his riches to his children because he is ''not an enthusiast for dynastic wealth, particularly when the alternative is 6 billion people'' having a chance to benefit from the money.

Richard Shreve, an adjunct professor of business ethics at Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business, said he thought Buffett's choice to give so much of his money away without demanding that his name be attached to it was both selfless and sensible.

''He's a rational businessman,'' Shreve said. ''If he wants to do some good with his money, he'll put it in the hands of people who he thinks are very smart who've been spending a lot of time figuring out how best to do good in the world.''

Bauer said he hopes Buffett's gift spurs others with wealth to forge similar ties rather than working on common goals separately.

''I would love, for example, to see two families in Seattle decide that if they're kind of working in a kind of a singular fashion on the same issues in the same community, wouldn't it be wonderful in the spirit of what the Gateses and Mr. Buffett have done, that they do the same thing?'' Bauer said.

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