Billionaire Warren Buffett said philanthropists must be prepared for some efforts to fail, and that major charitable initiatives are taking too little risk if they meet their goals every time.
“Intelligent charity, big-time charity should tackle things where it’ll fail,” Buffett, 80, said Tuesday at a press conference in Bangalore, India. “If you succeed in everything you’re doing in charity, you’re attempting things that are too easy.”
Buffett, the world’s third-wealthiest person, started the Giving Pledge with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates in June, aiming to persuade U.S. billionaires to commit more than half of their wealth to charity. The chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is promoting philanthropy to billionaires around the world. He is in India for the first time after visiting South Korea earlier this week.
Buffett has pledged the bulk of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic organization, which combats poverty and disease and funds U.S. education initiatives.
He has also made commitments to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife, and charities run by his three children. His donations have funded access to abortion, subsistence farming in developing nations, and efforts to reduce violence against women and girls.
“If everything they do is successful, they’re a failure,” Buffett says of his children. “Because it means they’re taking on things that are too easy. They should be taking on things that are tougher.”
The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, led by the only one of the CEO’s children on the board of Omaha-based Berkshire, focuses on farming in regions torn by conflict, according to its website.
“They can take a risk and be creative,” said Naomi Levine, executive director of New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, when comparing Buffett-funded ventures with government-sponsored efforts. “And when you’re creative and you take risks, there are times you will be successful and times you fail.”
Buffett cited charitable efforts by steel baron Andrew Carnegie, who donated money to build public libraries, gave organs to churches and funded observatories, concert halls, botanical gardens and museums. He also mentioned oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, who helped establish the University of Chicago and New York’s Rockefeller University and set up a foundation that funds health initiatives.
“If you look at the history of Rockefeller or Carnegie, not everything they did worked,” Buffett said. “But they did some very, very important things that worked, that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”
More than 50 participants have joined the Giving Pledge, according to its website, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg, filmmaker George Lucas and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
