Buffett pledges $30 billion to Gates foundation

This is like a fairy-tale. The second richest man on the planet and the legendary investor - Warren Buffett, has pledged most of his wealth to the Gates Foundation. The bridge playing buddies who are the top two richest men on the planet, have taken philanthropy to a new level by joining hands and pledging most of their wealth to charitable causes.

CNET reports , " Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett is donating about $30 billion in stock to a charitable foundation started by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the firm said Sunday.The announcement comes after Gates, 50, said he would move away from his day-to-day role at the Redmond, Wash.-based software company to focus more on charity work.Now worth $30 billion, the Gates foundation is one of the world's richest philanthropic organizations. It has committed millions of dollars to fighting diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries, and to education and library technology in the United States.

In letters to the recipients, he said he will award the gifts every year for the rest of his life. He is in "excellent health," he wrote to the Gates foundation, but said that he is writing a new will to ensure that the stock is distributed after his death.The gift is contingent on one of the Gateses continuing to be involved in the foundation, Buffett said."

Here is the Letter posted on the Berkshire Hathaway's website about the donation. These words by Buffett in his letter to BMG ( Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) capture the essence of Philanthropy :

"I greatly admire what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (“BMG”) is accomplishing and want to materially expand its future capabilities.I hope that the expansion of BMG’s giving is one of depth, rather than breadth. You have committed yourselves to a few extraordinarily important but underfunded issues, a policy that I believe offers the highest probability of your achieving goals of great consequence. The doubling of BMG’s present spending can increase the Foundation’s already impressive effectiveness in addressing the societal problems upon which it now focuses.

Working through the Foundation, both of you have applied truly unusual intelligence, energy and heart to improving the lives of millions of fellow humans who have not been as lucky as the three of us. You have done this without regard to color, gender, religion or geography. I am delighted to add to the resources with which you carry on this work."