Say Goodbye to This Grand Warren Buffett Tradition

The Glide Foundation, based in San Francisco, is "a nationally recognized center for social justice, dedicated to fighting systemic injustices, creating pathways out of poverty and crisis, and transforming lives." Super investor Warren Buffett's late wife Susie was so impressed by it that she launched an annual auction to raise money for it -- auctioning off a meal with her husband.

That was in 2000. Mrs. Buffett passed away in 2004, but her husband continued the tradition for many years -- until now. Here's a look at the interesting history of this tradition, at some of the winners, and at Buffett's other charitable activities.

Image source: Getty Images.

Meals with Warren Buffett

The annual auction went on hiatus in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic, but it returned this year. The 20th auction for Glide was conducted, as always, on eBay, and it concluded on June 17. The winning bids have risen significantly over the 20-plus years, with the last winner, in 2019, bidding $4.6 million. This year, though, that bid was nearly quadrupled, with the anonymous winner offering more than $19 million.

The folks at Glide note that the auctions have raised more than $53 million, supporting "transformative programs and services that lift people out of poverty, hunger, and homelessness, and advance equity through systems change."

Buffett, who turns 92 in August, said in an interview with the organization:

It's been nothing but good. We've raised money, but I've had a good time. I've met a lot of very interesting people from all over the world. ... The one universal characteristic is that they have a good time, and they feel they've got their money's worth. But the most important thing is they feel that that money is going to be put to very good uses. ... And it translates into human beings finding that there is hope in life.

It's interesting that Buffett has done more than just raise money for Glide. Just as he has put a lot of thought into how to build his company, Berkshire Hathaway, to last far into the future, Glide President Karen Hanrahan says, "Mr. Buffett... has been a thought partner in thinking through Glide's future, and how to set it up for the next 50 years."

Winners of past auctions

This year's winner remains, so far, anonymous, as have been many other past winners. Many are known, though. The Financial Post listed these winners, crediting Glide:

Source: The Financial Post.  

Investors Spier and Pabrai have written and spoken about their 2007 lunch, saying that it was "worth every penny" and sharing some lessons learned, such as: "Approach everything with integrity," "Get comfortable saying 'no,'" and "Do what you love."

Investor Weschler's two lunches with Buffett led not only to some lessons learned, but also a new job, as Buffett took a liking to Weschler, thought he'd fit in well with Berkshire, and offered him a role investing some of Berkshire's billions. Today, Weschler -- along with Todd Combs, hired a bit before him -- are Buffett's investing lieutenants, now investing many billions of company dollars.

Buffett and charity

While this tradition is ending,it's not the end for Buffett's charitable activity. He has long been serious about philanthropy, and in 2010, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, launched The Giving Pledge -- an organization aimed at inspiring billionaires to publicly commit to giving away at least half of their fortunes to charity. It has signed up about 263 of them, so far.

Buffett himself has a net worth recently estimated at $95 billion -- but it would be much higher, had he not started giving away big chunks of it annually years ago. (He recently made his latest annual gift, of $4 billion, to several charities, including The Gates Foundation.) Buffett plans to give away 99% of his wealth, and in many recent years, he has been the largest charitable donor for the year. He also holds the record for lifetime giving -- recently at some $48 billion -- and has been called the biggest philanthropist of all time.

So while it may be a shame that the annual auctions for Glide have ended, Buffett is still making the world a better place by putting his money to good use. As he's said, "If you're in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%."