A Lesson From Buffett: Give While Living
Billionaire's Gift Shows Benefits
Of Giving Now -- Still, Some Donors
Can Risk Running Out of Funds
You don't have to be as rich as Warren Buffett to give away your money like him.
Numerous investors have tried to emulate Mr. Buffett's famous investing style to build fortunes of their own. Now, philanthropy advisers believe his new philanthropic plan will become a model for how to donate money in order to get the maximum charitable impact.
Last week the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman said he plans to give the bulk of his huge fortune -- a gift worth about $31 billion in Berkshire shares -- to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, starting this year. Mr. Buffett also is giving about $6 billion to four family foundations, including ones run by his three children.
The moves reflect growing interest among wealthy people in making big donations while they are alive, rather than as a bequest at death. Philanthropy advisers say giving while living, as it's called, is often a smart choice. For starters, donors can reap the joy -- and, in some cases, publicity -- over their good deed. What's more, donors can keep tabs on their gift, eyeing whether the money is being used effectively.
GIVE IT LIKE BUFFETT
You don't need to have billions to make a donation like Warren Buffett. Here are some lessons from his gift:
? Make a major gift while living, rather than a bequest, so you can witness the results.
? Give to a group run by people that you know and trust.
? Include your children in your philanthropy.
? Make sure the charity is equipped to handle a major donation.There also can be attractive tax benefits. When you make a lifetime gift, you get an income-tax deduction, reducing your income tax bill, and you also move money out of your estate, which can trim estate taxes. The income-tax deduction may be limited, however, depending on several factors, including whether the gift is made up of cash, securities or other forms of property, what type of charity received the gift and how the donation was structured, says charity law expert Conrad Teitell in Stamford, Conn.
Jan T. Vilcek, a professor of microbiology at New York University who made a fortune a few years ago when he helped invent a successful anti-inflammatory drug, says he has already given a majority of his wealth away. He funded a family foundation, with a current endowment of about $15 million, and donated a percentage of the future royalties of the drug's sales to NYU's medical school last year, a gift estimated at the time to be worth $105 million. Besides taking advantage of tax benefits, Dr. Vilcek, who is 73 years old, says, "Another reason for doing things in your lifetime is that when you make donations to large institutions and set general guidelines for how these things can be used, you can keep an eye on how your legacy is fulfilled."
But those with lesser means than Mr. Buffett say they worry about running out of money after making a major gift or fear not having enough on hand to cover their charitable pledges if they have a reversal of fortune. That's become especially important now as adults are living longer and may need more money to cover their remaining years.
Victor Clarke, chief executive of Gables Engineering, a Miami-based airplane instrumentation company that his father founded, has given about $15 million away, including a $10 million gift last year to a Miami hospital. When institutions bring him proposals for donations, Mr. Clarke says he carefully evaluates how a gift will fit into his finances and makes sure he has enough savings to cover his pledges. "I try not to give so much away that I will be in trouble," says Mr. Clarke, who is 74. "I don't want to have giver's remorse."
If maintaining an income stream is a worry, the charitable world offers several options that have become increasingly common -- including so-called charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts and pooled income funds -- that allow donors to still receive a cash flow even after making a gift. While these strategies vary, in general, you make a donation to a charity or to a charitable trust, and in return receive regular payments during your lifetime. Another bonus: You can receive an income-tax deduction for the amount estimated to ultimately end up with the charity.
Still, once the money is out of your pocket and in the charity's coffers, it's irrevocable, which means you can't take the gift back. For some people, therefore, bequests are a safer bet because they can change the terms of their will -- including how much they'll give and to whom -- until they die, says Tony Martignetti, a New York fund-raising consultant for charities. What's more, many donors' wealth is tied up in illiquid assets, such as real estate or a family business, that might not be freed until death. And, of course, many donors choose to make substantial gifts during their lifetime as well as support their favorite charities or family foundations in their wills.
There is an ever-growing roster of ways to give away your money besides just writing a simple check to a favorite charity. Some methods, such as popular donor-advised funds, can be great tax-savers. A few charities, such as the Jewish National Fund, have new "donor-managed investment account" programs in which financially savvy donors can manage the investment of their charitable gifts, allowing the money to grow substantially even after it's donated.
What's more, a number of Web-based tools, such as Guidestar.org, Charitynavigator.org, Charitywatch.org and Give.org, have sprung up to help donors more effectively research and track charities to make sure their gifts are being used wisely.
Mr. Buffett's decision to give the majority of his wealth away while he's still alive is a departure from his previous plan to compound the money over the course of his lifetime and leave a bigger pot to charity in his will. He cited personal reasons for this reversal: Mr. Buffett had always expected to die before his wife and that she would take care of giving the money away when he was gone. When she died, in 2004, he realized he'd have to come up with a better plan.
Mr. Buffett says the huge scale and efficiency of the foundation run by his long-time friends Mr. and Mrs. Gates afforded him an easy solution to dispense of his wealth. The foundation focuses on several causes, including fighting global health problems and improving U.S. schools and libraries.
Like Mr. Buffett, many parents also involve their children in their charitable plans, using philanthropy as a tool to teach their kids about how to manage family wealth as well as instill values such as generosity. Families can bring their adult children onto the boards of family foundations, for example, or set aside a fund of money for younger children to disburse to causes that the kids research. "It's a way for children to get real hands-on experience and have a meaningful voice," says Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a donor consulting firm in New York.
Mr. Buffett's gift comes at a time when charitable giving has been in the spotlight because of the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina and other major natural disasters. In 2005 total charitable giving by Americans, which includes gifts from individuals, bequests, foundations and companies, rose about 6% to $260.28 billion, according to a report published by the Giving USA Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization in Glenview, Ill. and conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
The gift also comes amid some major shifts in the philanthropic world. While it still takes someone like a Gates or a Buffett to give a multibillion-dollar gift while living, mega-donations of more than $100 million are becoming increasingly common. At least 11 of them have been announced in the first six months of 2006 alone (not counting Mr. Buffett's gift), according to trade publication Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The run-up of wealth of the past decade also created a more hands-on type of philanthropy, often called venture philanthropy. Donors, many of whom were young and tech-savvy, began demanding more accountability and efficiency when parting with their dollars, just as venture capitalists often stipulate regular reporting for their investments. These donors often become intimately involved with the nonprofits they fund, by offering help such as business advice, connections and oversight. "It's the opposite of just saying, 'Here's the check, good luck,' " says Calvin Edwards, a philanthropy adviser in Atlanta.
Software developer Charles Simonyi -- an early employee at Microsoft, where he helped create both the Word and Excel programs -- says he has given about $85 million away, much of it to a foundation he created that funds the arts and sciences, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Like the Gates family, who influenced his philanthropy, he takes a hands-on approach. "It requires a lot of thought and a lot of work and...one has to get personally involved in the projects," says Mr. Simonyi, 57 years old, who is the chief executive of Intentional Software Corp., in Bellevue, Wash.
把爱心留在今生
你无需等到像沃伦?巴菲特(Warren Buffett)那样富有，才去效仿他的捐款方式。
数不清的投资者曾追随巴菲特的投资理念来为自己创造和积累财富。如今，慈善领域的顾问人士称，巴菲特的新计划又将为慈善事业树立起新的典范。
上周，作为Berkshire Hathaway Inc.的董事长，巴菲特宣布将大笔财富－－价值310亿美元的Berkshire股票－－捐给比尔及梅林达?盖茨基金会(Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)，并从今年起陆续捐出。与此同时，巴菲特还将向他的家族基金会注入60亿美元，包括由三个儿子创建的三家基金。
看来富豪们在有生之年慷慨解囊的做法已蔚然成风，很多人纷纷放弃了遗赠的方式。慈善顾问表示，在有生之年捐赠财富不失为明智之举。首先，捐赠者可以从捐赠中得到满足－－有时他们的举动还可以帮助他们树立良好的公众形象。而且，捐赠者可以对他们的捐款进行监督，以保证资金的有效使用。
在税收上得到的实惠也颇具吸引力。当你捐出资产时，你可以相应获得所得税减免，让税收帐单大大减少，这还意味著你捐出一部分财产，享受财产税减免。不过，康涅狄格州的捐赠法律专家康拉德?泰特尔(Conrad Teitell)称，所得税的减免非常有限，这要取决于诸多因素，包括捐出的财产是现金、证券还是其他财产，以及捐赠结构如何等。
纽约大学(New York University)微生物学教授让?维尔切克(Jan T. Vilcek)在几年前因发明一种有效的消炎药物而获得一笔财富，他表示，已将大部分财富捐出去。他成立了家庭基金会，目前的捐赠额约为1,500万美元，去年还将该药销售的一部分未来特许权费捐给纽约大学医学院，估计这份捐赠最终将价值1.05亿美元。现年73岁的维尔切克表示，除了享受税收优惠外，“我选择在有生之年做点事情的另一个原因是，当你向大型机构捐款并制定一些款项使用的基本原则时，你可以对资金的使用加以监督。”
不过那些并不像巴菲特这样富有的人说，他们担心在作出大笔捐赠后自己有一天会身无分文，或者财运急转直下，可能无法兑现自己的捐赠承诺。眼下，随著人类平均寿命逐渐加长，余生所需要的财富随之增多，这一问题显得尤为重要。
迈阿密飞机仪表制造商Gables Engineering的首席执行长维克托?克拉克(Victor Clarke)去年捐出1,500万美元，包括给迈阿密一家医院的1,000万美元。当一些机构提出希望他能捐赠一些财物时，克拉克说，他仔细地评估了一下如何根据自己的财务状况作出捐赠，以确保有足够的积蓄来兑现承诺。“我尽量不捐出太多，以免让自己陷入麻烦，”现年74岁的克拉克说。“我不想因为捐赠而懊悔。”
如果你担心收入不稳定，慈善世界还有很多方案可以让你高枕无忧，并且这些方案正在日益普及－－包括所谓的慈善年金，慈善余款信托基金和合伙组建的收益基金等－－使得捐赠者在捐出财富后仍可获得稳定的现金收入。虽然这些策略千差万别，但总体来讲，你向慈善机构或慈善基金捐款，可以在有生之年获得定期回报。还有一个好处，你可以基于大概的最终捐赠数额享受所得税减免。
当然，款项一经捐出，你就无法收回了，也就是说，你无法将送出去的礼物拿回来。因此对于某些人而言，遗赠是一个更为妥当的做法，因为他们可以随时修改遗嘱－－包括给谁，给多少－－只要他们还活著，纽约的慈善机构融资顾问(Tony Martignetti)说。另外，很多捐赠者的财产以房地产或家庭企业等非现金资产存在，这些资产可能要到他们去世后方能使用。不过，仍有很多捐赠者选择在有生之年进行大笔捐赠，同时立下遗嘱支持他们所喜欢的慈善机构或家庭基金会。
现在，在给慈善团体开支票这种最简单的做法之外，人们在捐赠时又有了越来越多的选择方式。有些方式，比如很受欢迎的捐赠顾问基金，还能为捐赠人节省大量纳税。
有些慈善基金（如Jewish National Fund）有一种新的“捐赠人管理投资帐户”项目，在这类项目里，精明的捐赠人可以对他们所捐赠的善款进行管理，让他们的钱在捐出去之后还能继续增值。
另外，网上还出现了大量管理工具，比如Guidestar.org、Charitynavigator.org、Charitywatch.org和Give.org，它们能帮助捐赠人对慈善基金进行有效调查和跟踪，以确保他们的捐赠被恰当使用。
巴菲特决定在他仍在世的时候就将他的大部分财富捐献出来，这一做法与他原来的设想不一样，他本来计划在其有生之年继续运作这些资金让它们增值，同时在遗嘱里将其中的较大一部分留给慈善基金。巴菲特表示，之所以改变主意是出于一个个人原因：以前他一直认为自己会先于妻子去世，那样的话，他去世后，她还能料理捐赠的事。但他妻子后来在2004年就离他而去，他意识到需要拿出一个更好的计划。
巴菲特说，他的老友比尔?盖茨夫妇经营著一个规模庞大且很高效的基金，这为他处理自己的财产提供了一个很便利的渠道。盖茨基金会主要关注全球疾病防治和改善美国学校教育和图书馆设施等领域。
像巴菲特一样，许多美国家庭都让子女参与他们的慈善计划，他们通过慈善活动教给孩子们如何管理财富、并向他们灌输慷慨给予等价值观念。比如，有些家庭会让成年子女进入家庭慈善基金的董事会，或者拨出资金单独给他们建立一个基金，让他们自己决定将基金里的善款分配给他们挑选的领域。纽约捐赠咨询公司Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors总裁梅丽萨?伯曼(Melissa Berman)说，这种方式可以让孩子们有机会直接参与并表达自己的想法。
当前，慈善捐赠行为在美国社会受到广泛关注，这与近年发生的造成巨大破坏的卡特里娜飓风和其他重大灾害有关。据非盈利性教育组织Giving USA Foundation发表的报告说，2005年，美国人的慈善款总额达到了2,602.8亿美元，较之前一年增加了6%。捐款来源包括个人捐款、遗赠、基金会和企业。这份报告是由印地安那大学慈善研究中心编撰的。
同时，慈善事业本身也出现了一些重大变化。尽管只有盖茨或巴菲特这样的为数不多的人能拿出数十亿乃至数百亿美元的善款，但超过1亿美元的捐赠已变得越来越普遍。据专业出版物Chronicle of Philanthropy的数字，仅在今年上半年，就宣布了11笔这样的捐赠（不包括巴菲特在内）。
过去10年来财富的迅速增长也孕育出了捐赠人直接参与程度更深的慈善机构，它们有时被称为慈善风险投资(venture philanthropy)。捐赠人（其中有很多是年轻的科技精英）开始对慈善基金的可靠性和运作效率提出越来越高的要求，就像风险投资家经常要求接受投资的一方定期提供投资报告那样。
这些捐赠人往往与他们参与的非盈利基金有密切联系，有时他们会在业务建议、对外关系和规划等方面向这些机构提供帮助。亚特兰大慈善事务顾问卡文?爱德华(Calvin Edwards)说，这跟以前人们在捐款时只会说“这是给你们的支票，祝你们好运”已经大不相同。
曾供职微软并参与了Word和Excel软件项目的软件开发人士查尔斯?西莫耶(Charles Simonyi)说，他已捐献出约8,500万美元，其中很大一部分捐给了他创立的一家赞助科学和艺术事业的基金，接受赞助的机构包括位于普林斯顿的Institute for Advanced Study。盖茨一家对他的慈善理念影响很大，他像盖茨一样也采取了亲自参与的方式。今年57岁的西莫耶说，慈善事业需要大量的思考和大量的具体工作，人们需要切实地参与到具体项目中。西莫耶现担任Intentional Software Corp.首席执行长。
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虽然你可能没有巴菲特那么多的财富，但你也一样能为慈善事业作贡献。下面是巴菲特带给我们的启示：
--在你在世的时候就捐赠，不要等你的善款变成“遗赠”。这样，你就能亲眼看到你的捐赠带来的成果。
--将你的钱捐给你了解并信任的人经营的机构。
--让你的子女参与你的慈善活动。
--确信接受你捐赠的慈善机构有能力处理巨额捐赠项目。
Rachel Emma Silverman / Elizabeth Bernstein
