Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Warren Buffett's daughter-in-law says her philanthropic work through the Novo Foundation has changed her life as well as her marriage.
In the Marie Claire magazine article, Leslie Bennetts wrote that Jennifer Buffett, 45, wife of Peter, has become "a major player in American philanthropy as well as the global movement to empower women and girls."
Her world changed in 2006 when Warren Buffett decided to give most of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plus $1 billion to each of his children's foundations. The only condition was that they work in an area where they can make a difference and "stick with it," Jennifer Buffett said.
She and Peter traveled to figure out what to do with their Novo Foundation and discovered that women and girls are routinely left out of the decision-making process and often are trapped in poverty and subject to violence. They began working to bring women out of poverty, promote healthy child development and stop "gender-based violence" in the United States and abroad.
The foundation made $56 million in grants in 2008. Chris Grumm, former president of the Women's Funding Network, said Novo has a higher level of giving than most foundations and Jennifer Buffett has become "a wonderful role model. Her leadership has grown immensely, and it's been really exciting to watch."
Yet Jennifer Buffett said she felt "impotent and miserable" only a few years ago because she had spent the first decade of her marriage supporting Peter's music career. She said she eventually felt "invisible" and thought, "This isn't working. I'm putting all this energy into someone else's thing, but it's always going to be his, not ours. I have no voice."
She hit a low point and "realized that it didn't matter if the marriage was over. I finally said, 'Enough!' — and everything changed."
"Instead of ending the marriage, her rebellion unexpectedly revitalized it," the story says.
"I don't think the traditional female role serves us. I think it serves men," she said. "When somebody is subordinating themselves, it's just too easy for the other person to take them for granted and not value them. We need to start to say no. You think you're being selfless in giving, but you're being a martyr. Self-care is not a selfish act."
She and her husband are partners in the foundation. Now, "I feel more alive than I ever have in my whole life. We have the ability to do so much. I can't wait to get out of bed and support that. ... I feel like my life is just beginning."
Givers eager for results
When it comes to philanthropy, Bill Gates says, billionaires in the U.S. and India have a common problem: Finding great places to give their money.
In his annual letter for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates said the 69 people who have taken the "Giving Pledge" is more than he and Buffett expected when they started the campaign in 2010.
The two billionaires are asking fellow wealthy people to pledge that they will give away at least half of their wealth, either during their lifetimes or after. Several more people plan to sign the pledge soon, Gates said. "We're hopeful that many others will follow."
A group of the signers met in May, and Buffett and Gates plan to hold similar get-togethers. Some of those at the meeting are considering joint funding of charitable projects.
When the Gateses and Buffett met with about 60 wealthy people in India last March, the group talked about whether it would be better to use their money to create jobs. Buffett joked that even Santa Claus creates jobs for elves and reindeer.
From meeting with both groups, Gates said, he realized that "a key factor holding people back from being even more generous is finding philanthropic endeavors that make them feel like they are having a significant and unique impact." As a result, he said, he is thinking "a lot harder" about how to use the Internet to make it easier for philanthropists to connect with one another and see the results of the money they donate.
New Wells Fargo turf
Buffett talked to Dick Kovacevich, Wells Fargo's CEO at the time, in 2009, and the 10-minute conversation helped lead to Wells Fargo & Co.'s recent expansion into the investment banking field, Bloomberg magazine reported.
"Here we are, our largest shareholder, and we had never done any meaningful investment banking for him," Kovacevich told the Bloomberg magazine in recalling the Buffett conversation. "I called him and said we've got some great bankers here now, this is important and we'd really like to show you what we can do."
Wells Fargo had stuck with traditional banking, making loans to individuals and businesses and taking in deposits. Investment banking goes beyond that, into the world of helping businesses merge or raise capital for expansion, plus other financial services.
Doubts on 'Buffett rule'
Buffett may be right about tax inequity between the rich and the poor, but adding yet another layer of tax complexity is not a great idea, syndicated columnist Jacob Sullum wrote last week.
"Much of that complexity is unnecessary, and it helps explain why taxpayers dread this time of year, when they start pulling together the evidence they need to make their case to the IRS: Take my money, please, but don't peruse, penalize or prosecute me," Sullum wrote. "The headache-inducing complexity of the tax code is also a major reason for the unfairness Obama decries. Yet the policies he recommends would only make the problem worse."
President Barack Obama's recommendation of a "Buffett rule" tax — anyone making more than $1 million a year would pay at least 30 percent in federal taxes — would add to a tax code that includes the "grotesquely complicated" alternative minimum tax, which was intended to make wealthy people pay taxes but already is penalizing people who are not wealthy, the columnist wrote.
Obama condemns "loopholes and shelters," Sullum wrote, and yet called in his State of the Union Address for tax breaks for college students, small businesses, companies that hire veterans, high-tech manufacturers, "clean energy," energy-saving improvements to buildings and "companies that choose to stay here and hire here in America. ... This insistence on using taxes for economic meddling and social engineering has made the system the hideous mess it is today."
Grandson cultivates ideas
Buffett's grandson Howard Warren Buffett attended the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and, according to the Washington Post, discussed his passion for agriculture. He also is an executive with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which is operated by his father.
He attended the meeting as a "global shaper," a group of young people trying to influence the community. In an interview, he said his access to such events lets him and his father "look for creative solutions that others might not have the opportunity to seek out."
Last year, he began running a 400-acre farm owned by the Buffett family north of Omaha. "Literally working the land myself and understanding the entire system and process has been a fantastic growth opportunity," he said.
Buffett moved away from Omaha with his family as a child but returned last year after working at the White House and for the Department of Defense. Returning to Omaha, he said, "was like this enlightening experience, like I am finally coming home. If I'm home, I'll be happy."
He also has traveled widely with his father, whose ag-oriented philanthropy includes projects in Africa, Asia and South America.
"It's time for me to take all of that as fuel and really put it toward understanding how we can make some positive improvements to the different systems that we have in society," he said.
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