Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.

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President's Point of View: Why we should care about Warren Buffett

July 3, 2006

On Monday, June 26, 2006 an unprecedented event took place that curiously found little mention in our local media outlets. As I sat in my hotel room in Rome (enjoying a well-deserved and wonderful vacation in Italy), I watched the news conference that featured Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett announcing that the bulk of Mr. Buffett’s estate will go to philanthropic foundations.

Warren Buffett is the billionaire investor who took the corporation Berkshire Hathaway into the stratosphere in terms of its earnings and diversification in investments in other companies. He has the ability to make bold and good business decisions and acknowledged during the press conference that making philanthropic decisions may be more difficult.

Warren Buffett is giving a record-breaking $44-billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as his children’s foundations.

Bill Gates stated the following when gratefully accepting the gift and its terms, “The scale of the problems we deal with is gigantic. We’ll be a small part, working with government to steer philanthropy in ways that make a difference.”

In the June 26, 2006 edition of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, it was stated that “an estimated $30-billion or more coming from Mr. Buffett, the Gates Foundation could be worth almost as much as the nine other richest grant makers in the United States combined.”

As I was sitting watching this phenomenal gift being announced, I was struck by the fact that it is indeed unprecedented as I have never seen in my career a gift being given from one private individual to a private foundation that is already established by a family or corporation. It is clear that Mr. Buffett has great admiration and respect for both Bill and Melinda Gates and their ability to accomplish good results with their philanthropy. It is all about the relationship and all about doing what you say you are going to do and doing it well.

I like Mr. Buffett’s philosophy that espouses that one needs to take risks and that nothing will be accomplished if you take the safe route. Also I appreciated his comment that explained what he was trying to do in his philanthropy which is to support causes that do not necessarily have obvious benefactors but are important and may not be popular with other donors.

My favorite comment from Mr Buffett though was: “In business,” he said, “you look for the easy things to do. In philanthropy, you take on important problems and it is a tougher game.”

That is indeed true! The resource for philanthropy is set up right here in the metro Grand Rapids area and that is the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. We have the expertise, the compassion, the passion, the research, the knowledge and the proven track record to help one and all in their philanthropy! It certainly doesn’t have to be in the billions of dollars - though I know we could accomplish great things with more resources. We are here to serve and do desire to build strong and lasting relationships with all of our donors - whose resources may be in the comfortable range or more vast.

As one of my mentors always has said to me: “Kid - it is all about the relationship. Don’t ever forget that!” Thanks Sam Kravitz - I never will forget that!

And thanks to the generosity of Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, philanthropy has been elevated to a new level in our world, our country and indeed in our community.