How the Makers of Previous Years’ Big Pledges Fared in Making Their Payments in 2009

The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 50, its list of the top individual donors, does not include payments that donors made on pledges announced in previous years, in order to avoid counting the same gift twice.

As a result, the most recent Philanthropy 50 list does not include some of last year’s biggest gifts, because they were given as payments made on pledges announced in previous years.

Buffett’s Giving

Among the donors was Warren E. Buffett, who gave 428,688 shares of Berkshire Hathaway class “B” stock, worth slightly more than $1.2-billion in 2009, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle.

The donation was the most recent payment on the pledge of 10 million shares Mr. Buffett made to the Gates foundation in 2006, the largest donation ever made. At the time Mr. Buffett’s pledge was announced, the value of 10 million shares of Berkshire stock was pegged at approximately $31-billion by the Gates foundation.

Including his 2009 payment, Mr. Buffett has given a total of slightly more than 1.8 million shares of stock, worth about $6.4-billion, to the Gates foundation, and he has about 8.2 million shares remaining to pay.

Last year Mr. Buffett also made payments on additional pledges he had made in 2006. He gave 42,869 shares of Berkshire stock, worth $125.3-million, to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, in Omaha, which is named after his first wife.

In addition, he gave 15,005 shares of Berkshire stock, worth about $43.9-million, in 2009 to each of his three children’s foundations. He has promised to give a total of 350,000 shares to those foundations.

Another big donor, Ted Turner, gave $50-million in cash to the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund in 2009. He made the donation through his Turner Global Foundation, which he established in 2004. The grant was payment toward a $1-billion pledge Mr. Turner made in 1997 to establish the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund. To date, he has paid a total of slightly more than $802-million toward the pledge.

Bill and Melinda Gates gave about $34.5-million in 2009 toward the approximately $3.3-billion pledge the couple made to their foundation in 2004. Mr. and Ms. Gates have paid a total of roughly $2.7-billion toward their 2004 commitment and have about $600-million remaining to pay on that pledge.