Peter and Jennifer Buffett on Philanthropy

The USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy hosted the Buffett’s as part of their Distinguished Speakers Series.  Titled “A Philanthropic Journey: A Conversation with Jennifer and Peter Buffett,” was moderated by Geoffrey Cowan.  And it was a journey.  It was fascinating how Peter’s father, Warren Buffett, initially gave them $100,000 to give, then $10 million.  A good test that lead to the $1 Billion gift to their foundation, NoVo, in 2007.  NoVo in Latin means: change, alter, invent.   Their main focus is to empower women and girls as the primary agents of change.  Jennifer talked about the importance of girls being emotionally prepared, to be attentive and learn, which is the basis for their Social and Emotional Learning Initiative.  When asked how they determine where to invest, Peter responded by saying “we look for great leaders doing transformational things.  We do not look at liveson a map.”   Jennifer talked about the importance of capacity building with organizations that are having an impact but could do so much more if they had the proper structure and resources.  They have told really good NGOs to take a break, take a breath and lets work on capacity building, we’ll keep you going during the process.  They believe in giving more than the 5% required payout each year with Peter saying “move the money in a responsible way, the problems are now!”  Jennifer closed by saying something that really struck me: “We went from the day to day of living our small stories, to now taking responsibility and living the large story.” http://cppp.usc.edu/ http://novofoundation.org/