World's second richest man donates $31 BILLION (80% of his total wealth) to charity

Dave! · 26-06-2006 11:25PM #1

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060626/WIRE/206260312/1117/news

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/06/25/us-billionaire-buffett-to-give-most-of-his-fortune-to-gates-foundation/

eh..... nice guy

If he's got any kids I'd say they're cursing the sh*t out of him

Although I suppose, if you've got $1 billion, what difference does it make if you've got 2? You'll never get around to spending 1! Or you'd have to try really hard anyway

What do ye make of this?

Tar.Aldarion · 26-06-2006 11:26PM

Saw it all on the news, good man for giving it to charity tbh. That's a lot of money!

New_Departure06 · 26-06-2006 11:27PM

Only $6.3 billion left. What a saint.

monkeyfudge · 26-06-2006 11:28PM

Did he buy $31 Billion's worth of Hanley Centre scratch cards?

iFight · 26-06-2006 11:29PM

Thats a good guy, doubt the children would care tbh, still will be given enough to be very well off

Ruu_Old · 26-06-2006 11:30PM

Wow thats alot of money to give away. Well I suppose he earned it, so he can do what he wants, fair play.

Terry · 26-06-2006 11:31PM

fair play to him.
he's 75 years old. that about the average age that people reach and you can't spend the money when you're dead.

michelle_ie · 26-06-2006 11:31PM

julep wrote:

fair play to him.
he's 75 years old. that about the average age that people reach and you can't spend the money when you're dead.

he is not 75 anyway he was born in 1955

smilydude · 26-06-2006 11:31PM

Its an amazing amount of money to give to charity! Just hope it gets spent where its most needed.

YeAh! · 26-06-2006 11:31PM

Wow! Kinda makes that €2 you throw into charity boxes kinda futile.

Hail 2 Da Chimp · 26-06-2006 11:33PM

Fair play to him. Thats probably the most decent thing anybody has ever done!

Tar.Aldarion · 26-06-2006 11:35PM

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote:

Fair play to him. Thats probably the most decent thing anybody has ever done!

Ya...sure it is...

Don't stop YeAH!, it all makes a difference.

The_Minister · 26-06-2006 11:37PM

New_Departure06 wrote:

Only $6.3 billion left. What a saint.

Be fair, it's a greater percentage then you'll ever give.

Robbo · 26-06-2006 11:38PM

monkeyfudge wrote:

Did he buy $31 Billion's worth of Hanley Centre scratch cards?

He signed up with every chugger he met on one Saturday afternoon whilst shopping.

Terry · 26-06-2006 11:46PM

michelle_ie wrote:

he is not 75 anyway he was born in 1955

from the first link:

The decision disclosed Sunday marked a jarring turnabout for the 75-year-old "Oracle of Omaha," who had claimed for years that his $44 billion stock holdings would fund philanthropy after his death.

New_Departure06 · 26-06-2006 11:47PM

Firespinner wrote:

Be fair, it's a greater percentage then you'll ever give.

LOL Spose.

Kintarō Hattori · 27-06-2006 12:15AM

YeAh! wrote:

Wow! Kinda makes that €2 you throw into charity boxes kinda futile.

Not really. If you don't have much to begin with, then that few euro can be alot.

seamus · 27-06-2006 12:19AM

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

Dave! · 27-06-2006 12:26AM

seamus wrote:

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

Well he gave it to Bill Gates' charity, I don't know how much better that is than other charity organisations, but if I were to guess I'd say a higher percentage of the cash goes where it should go.

Patricide · 27-06-2006 01:14AM

Fair play to that guy, thats a lot of people with homes vaccines education and all that.

Skyuser · 27-06-2006 02:46AM

Banks would pay about €500,000 a week interest on that.

Ciaran500 · 27-06-2006 07:32AM

But what will the Gates foundation do with $60 billion that you could't do with $29 billion

Mossy Monk · 27-06-2006 07:37AM

this is amazing news. heard it on the news last night and thought i misheard the billion part. fair ****s to him

Gurgle · 27-06-2006 07:50AM

Candidate for sainthood tbh.
(and thats high praise from an aethiest)

HelterSkelter · 27-06-2006 08:50AM

seamus wrote:

He should have bought one of the poorer countries. Then he could decide how best his money would be spent, rather than have it pissed away into the charity black hole.

Were you drunk when you wrote that?

seamus · 27-06-2006 08:59AM

Nope. Slightly tongue-in-cheek though.

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

daveirl · 27-06-2006 09:08AM

This post has been deleted.

Earthhorse · 27-06-2006 09:08AM

That 80% figure gets bandied about quite a lot but there are very few reputable charities that spend that much on administration.

The Gates Foundation only gives to charities which meet with very stringent criteria and can prove they are making a difference in the area they work. For my money he couldn't have given to a better foundation nor been more generous with the amount of his contribution.

ionapaul · 27-06-2006 09:17AM

He actually has his own foundation set up but recognised that Gates's foundation would be the most appropriate vehicle for his money, or at least the huge amount he had to donate. Great stuff, he and Gates are legends and hopefully really will put it up to the other mega-billionaires who don't donate as much or waste their money on football teams, giant pleasure boats and other things.

HelterSkelter · 27-06-2006 09:24AM

seamus wrote:

Nope. Slightly tongue-in-cheek though.

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

What charity would that be? Where are you getting these figures from?

stevejazzx · 27-06-2006 09:28AM

seamus wrote:

Nope. Slightly tongue-in-cheek though.

Depending on the charity you give to, up to 80% of the contribution you make can be spent on the cost of getting that contribution to the people who need it.

80% of 31billion is 24.8billion which is 24thousand million - i think! - now I've seen some large admin costs in the past....
the charity could give 98percent directly to various causes and still have 500million leftover for running costs and admin....

Which begs the question, with all this money in the world how is that peope are starving?

World's second richest man donates $31 BILLION (80% of his total wealth) to charity

Comments