According to a Chronicle count, after 17 years of consistent payments, Warren Buffett has provided annual donations totaling $50.7 billion towards his landmark multibillion-dollar pledges to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four nonprofits affiliated to his family. On Wednesday, he announced his most recent annual payments towards his pledges.
Buffett became the largest donor in history in June 2006, when he pledged 10 million shares of his Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock, then valued at approximately $36.1 billion, to the Gates Foundation, along with 1 million Berkshire shares, then valued at approximately $3.6 billion, to the foundation named after his late first wife, Susan Thompson Buffett, and 350,00 shares, then valued at approximately $1.3 billion apiece, to foundations established by his three children.
