Donating Buffett’s billions: Susie, siblings tasked with giving away fortune. Omaha may benefit.

Warren Buffett is famously consistent. 

The billionaire’s morning routine still sees him leave the Omaha home he’s inhabited for 66 years, his daughter Susie Buffett says, often picking up breakfast at McDonald’s on the way to work. When he gets there, he’s guided by the same investing philosophy that made him a titan of finance.

But last year, a letter to shareholders appeared on Berkshire Hathaway’s austere website announcing a seismic change of heart for Buffett. 

That shocking twist — Buffett declared that he’s willing nearly all of his immense wealth to a charitable trust overseen by his three children — will transform his kids into some of the world’s most influential philanthropists when the 94-year-old dies.

And, according to local and national observers, it’s likely to result in billions more flowing through four foundations tied to the family — including an Omaha-oriented grantmaking powerhouse.

The Sherwood Foundation, steered by Susie Buffett, is already a vital philanthropic organ in the city, contributing more than $130 million to local charities and initiatives in each of the last six years.

Susie Buffett told the Flatwater Free Press she anticipates Sherwood’s giving will remain in Nebraska if there’s an influx of funding. “It’s impossible at this point to know what the impact would be,” she wrote in an email to Flatwater. “I hope it’s all positive. That’s always the goal!”

“It matters to me that we are responding to what the community needs,” she added. “I never want to assume that I (or anyone at Sherwood) know what’s best for others. So when the time comes, we will do our best to listen and respond.”

Omaha’s nonprofit leaders are enthusiastic about the prospect of the foundation getting a piece of Warren Buffett’s remaining Berkshire stock, currently valued at roughly $145 billion. It could make a big difference.

It’s unclear how much each of the family foundations could receive. But if Sherwood eventually gets one-eighth of the pie — in line with Buffett’s recent allocation to the foundations — the organization would see its coffers filled with more than $18 billion in stock holdings, based on Dec. 4 prices.

For context, the 10th largest foundation in the U.S., the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, reported nearly $8.3 billion in assets, according to the nonprofit tracker Candid. That means that even if Sherwood received $9 billion, it would be among the 10 largest foundations in the U.S.

Sherwood’s total assets in 2023 were about $460 million.

“I think his kids have demonstrated that they’re really passionate about supporting public infrastructure and public good,” said Andrew Norman, the executive director of Rabble Mill, a Sherwood-funded youth engagement and workforce education organization.

“I personally appreciate the values that they hold and the sorts of things they invest in, so I’m encouraged by that,” Norman said.

Even as the city could be in line to hit the philanthropic jackpot, the Buffett billions won’t last forever — and that’s by design.

In keeping with Warren Buffett’s rejection of “dynastic wealth,” the family foundations are set up to sunset, preventing them from existing in perpetuity.

Peter Buffett, Warren’s youngest son, said he doesn’t know the specific sunsetting plans for each of the four family foundations, but he believes they will likely operate on different timelines for spending down their assets.

Susie Buffett said there is no trigger in place for Sherwood’s closure, but that will be decided after her father dies.

“At some point in the future — and it could be a long time from now — there won’t be that kind of money available in Omaha,” said Vic Gutman, a longtime nonprofit fundraiser and friend of Susie Buffett.

Solving an unusual problem 

Two decades ago, Warren Buffett faced an uncommon, enviable problem: He had to give away one of the world’s largest fortunes.

Buffett found what he thought was a permanent solution in fellow billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates. In 2006, he pledged his support — in life and death — to the couple’s global foundation focused on reducing poverty and boosting health care.

To date, Buffett has given about $43 billion to the Gates Foundation, but the letter he wrote to shareholders last year spelled the beginning of the end of philanthropy’s most influential partnership.

Months later, Buffett made clear in a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal that he was effectively writing the Gates Foundation out of his will. Instead, his adult children will call the shots on donating their father’s posthumous assets.

Buffett recently wrote that observing his kids in action over the last two decades has given him “extraordinary confidence” in their ability to allocate his fortune.

“Susie Jr., Howie and Peter have each spent far more time directly helping others than I have,” Buffett wrote. “Their mother, from whom they learned these values, would be very proud of them. As am I.”

In the early days of the Buffetts’ burgeoning wealth, the formula was simple: Warren made the money, and his wife Susan gave it away to charitable causes, said Steve Jordon, a former Omaha World-Herald reporter who for decades covered Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway.

Susan Buffett’s passion for supporting education, medical advancement and reproductive health initiatives powered the Buffett Foundation, the family’s main philanthropic organ from 1964 until the mid-2000s.

“For decades, we had both thought that she would outlive me and subsequently distribute the vast majority of our large fortune. That was not to be,” Warren Buffett recently wrote.

Susan died in 2004, leaving most of her estate to the foundation, which Warren renamed in her honor. She also left $10 million to each of her children, which they used to kickstart their own fledgling foundations.

Though the Gates Foundation has been the primary vehicle for Buffett’s charitable giving since Susan’s death, he has steadily donated smaller but still sizable amounts to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and his kids’ foundations.

His eldest child Susie, 71, has centered her giving on Nebraska and western Iowa. And its cardinal focus is her hometown: More than 70% of the Sherwood Foundation’s grants went to Omaha-based nonprofits and initiatives in the past decade, according to a Flatwater Free Press review of IRS filings.

Over its lifetime, the foundation has given more than $2 billion in grants to wide-ranging causes including public schools, child abuse treatment programs, juvenile justice projects, food banks and arts initiatives. (Editor’s note: Sherwood has also previously donated to the Nebraska Journalism Trust, the Flatwater Free Press’ parent organization. All our donors are listed here.)

Howard, 69, has taken a more global approach, funding a series of international conservation, agriculture, public health and peacekeeping projects. In recent years, his eponymously named foundation has targeted more than $500 million in aid toward war-stricken Ukraine.

Peter Buffett, 66, and his wife Jennifer run the NoVo Foundation, which funds initiatives promoting gender equality, social justice and education, as well as dozens of programs in the couple’s home community around Kingston, New York.

After their father dies, his Berkshire stock will go into a charitable trust that requires unanimous agreement from the three children to disperse. The siblings generally communicate well and get along, said Gutman, the longtime Omaha fundraiser.

Buffett initially said the trust would self-liquidate after “a decade or so,” but his recent writings removed that deadline, noting that his kids are responsible for “gradually distributing” his holdings.

He unveiled last month that several alternate trustees have been chosen to succeed Susie, Howard and Peter in charitable decision making if they don’t live to see the task completed.

Susie, Howard and Peter haven’t determined how they will allocate their father’s extensive holdings or whether the money will flow through existing family foundations, Peter Buffett told the Flatwater Free Press in an email.

“Obviously, we’ve all been thinking about this and talked through a few scenarios, but we continually come back to the fact that there are too many variables that we’ll have to consider when the moment comes,” he said.

In Warren Buffett’s Thanksgiving disbursements to the family foundations, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, chaired by Susie Buffett, received more than $700 million worth of Berkshire stock, while each of his children’s foundations got about $140 million in stock. It’s unclear if that division of resources between the foundations will continue after the billionaire’s death.

Warren and Howard Buffett declined to comment for this story.

Gutman, whose wife Roberta Wilhelm works at Sherwood, doesn’t think an influx of money to the foundation would substantially change its mission or structure.

Susie Buffett runs Sherwood with a lean staff of roughly 10, and Gutman said he “can’t imagine she’s going to hire tons more people.” (Correction: This article originally incorrectly stated the size of Sherwood’s staff.)

“I don’t see Susie changing a lot. I think she is who she is, and her values are her values,” Gutman said. “I think she’ll continue to invest in them.”

Sherwood will see a spike in funding requests if it receives billions of dollars, and having a clearly defined purpose will help the foundation sort through the pile, said Miki Akimoto, chief impact officer at the National Center for Family Philanthropy.

While scaling up, the foundation must decide whether to rely solely on staff or to include community members and outsourced experts in grantmaking decisions, Akimoto said.

For Omaha nonprofits that rely on private donations, it’s a relief knowing that the city’s leading philanthropist will have influence over billions of dollars, in part because other large Omaha foundations are going away.

A prominent foundation created by early Berkshire investor Dick Holland will soon sunset following its benefactor’s 2016 death, and the Peter Kiewit Foundation recently announced it will follow suit in 2030.

As long-standing donors begin to disappear, nonprofits will need new support to maintain and expand their programming, said Robert Patterson, the CEO of Kids Can Community Center.

Historically, Sherwood has stepped up to make critical community investments, Patterson said, including at Kids Can, which provides child care and out-of-school programs in the Omaha area.

Deb Love, the president of the sunsetting Holland Foundation, wonders whether Sherwood will spark new ambitious ventures in Omaha after previously supporting projects like the riverfront redevelopment.

“I think they’ll be able to do some really great things for our community,” Love said.

Perhaps Susie Buffett could use some of her father’s riches to create a model in Omaha for breaking cyclical poverty or improving education that can be replicated elsewhere, Jordon said.

“If you can demonstrate that there’s a way private money can help move things toward broader improvements in society, then you’ve really accomplished something beyond your own dollars,” he said.

Sherwood and the other three Buffett family foundations will eventually give away all their money and fade away as many family philanthropies do, Gutman said.

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation will dissolve on Dec. 31, 2045, according to its website. The details surrounding the other foundations’ sunsets aren’t clear, Gutman said.

Hopefully, Susie Buffett will oversee the Sherwood Foundation’s activities for many more years, and even after her death, it may take time to distribute funds and sunset, Gutman said. But local nonprofits will have to find a new way to survive once Sherwood is gone, he noted.

“I can comfortably say that if Sherwood wasn’t here there would be a world of hurt for a lot of nonprofits, but that’s not going to hopefully happen anytime soon,” Gutman said.

Some industry leaders have faith the giving spirit of the Buffetts and other Berkshire-tied families will outlive their money and help produce the next crop of Omaha donors.

“There is still tremendous wealth in this community, and there will be future generations of philanthropists,” said Donna Kush, president of the Omaha Community Foundation.

“They may look a little different; they may go about it a little differently, but … they will take that responsibility very seriously I believe.” Kush said. “All is not lost.”

This article was reported through a fellowship supported by the Lilly Endowment and administered by the Chronicle of Philanthropy to expand coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The Flatwater Free Press is solely responsible for all content.