Warren Buffett has left the table. Homeless charity asks investors to bid on meal with software CEO
Marc Benioff. The San Francisco-based charity helps the homeless and those in poverty in the same city where Benioff oversees a software empire. The final auction of a lunch with Buffett two years ago attracted a record $19 million price that isn't likely to be matched.
The revered investor has legions of devoted followers who fill an Omaha arena every spring at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting to listen to Buffett's insights, and he had said ahead of time that 2022 would be his last auction. Still, Glide hopes that the Benioff auction will also raise significant funds to support the organization's $31 million budget, which provides meals, health care, job training, rehabilitation and housing for the poor and homeless. Buffett said it always amazed him how the charity helped people in difficult situations find hope again.
“We are so grateful that Marc Benioff is continuing Warren Buffett’s legacy of supporting San Francisco’s most vulnerable," said Dr. Gina M. Fromer, Glide's President and CEO.
Buffett’s first wife, Susie, introduced him to Glide after she volunteered there following her move to the city, and she suggested starting the lunch auction in 2000. She died in 2004, but the connection endured. Buffett endorsed the new arrangement from his office at Berkshire's small headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.
Benioff has urged his fellow CEOs to do more to help the homeless and remedy the inequalities in society that they helped create. He's also taken stands on polarizing issues such as gay rights, climate change and gun control. “The baton is in the right hands with Marc Benioff," Buffett said.
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