OVERVIEW: The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation funds scholarships for college students from Nebraska and grants to colleges and universities in the U.S. It is also the top private funder of sexual and reproductive health and rights work worldwide.
IP TAKE: While the size of this funder’s global health grants is staggering, it does not accept requests for funding and does not even mention its efforts on its website. Interested grantseekers will likely have difficulty securing funding without an inside connection, since this grant-maker likes to scope its own organizations to fund.
PROFILE: The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation was originally established as the Buffett Foundation in 1964. Susan Buffett, wife to multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, passed away in 2004, after which Buffett renamed the foundation in her honor. In 2006, Warren Buffett pledged nearly $3 billion in Berkshire-Hathaway stock to the organization. Susan Buffett left around $2.5 billion of her own fortune to the foundation, and in 2006, Warren Buffett pledged billions more (over time) to the foundation. In a recent year, STBF made grants of a half-billion dollars, mostly to support sexual and reproductive health and rights in the U.S. and abroad. Although this is a sizable foundation, it maintains a low public profile and does not articulate specific funding priorities other than its Nebraska scholarships program.
Grants for Higher Education
The Buffett Scholarship program awards grants of up to $5,500 per term to students who are “residents of Nebraska, graduates of a Nebraska high school with plans to attend a Nebraska public institution, and who have demonstrated financial need.” Applicants must complete a FAFSA to demonstrate their financial need. Applications become available on November 1 of each year and are due on the following February 1. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation also awards a limited number of grants to colleges and universities in the U.S. Past grantees include Southeast Community College, the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, and Stanford University.
This funder’s higher education grants typically range from $100,000 to $500,000, but have been as high as $10 million. Large, public universities tend to be the recipients of its largest grants.
Grants for Global Health, Women and Girls
Despite its financial clout, the STBF does not brand itself as a large philanthropic organization. The foundation’s website is simply dedicated to teacher awards programs and scholarship opportunities for students attending public universities in Nebraska, both minor slices of the foundation’s grantmaking. In fact, its site avoids any mention of its philanthropic focuses or its extensive sexual and reproductive rights work, which spans the world and focuses significant attention on Latin America, the U.S. and Rwanda. The foundation tends to prioritize large nonprofit organizations that work within the sexual and reproductive health and rights field on a global scale. In the past, the STBF has funded organizations like Ipas, International Planned Parenthood, and the WHO. The foundation’s grants for global health and reproductive justice may be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Important Grant Details:
The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation gave away over $600 million in a recent year. Its global and reproductive health grants are often made in amounts greater than $10 million in support of large global nonprofits and NGOs. Scholarships, meanwhile, are available only to residents of Nebraska or attendees of a Nebraska university.
Applications for the Buffett Scholarships are typically open from November 1 to February 1. The foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding for its other grantmaking interests.
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CONTACT:
Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
3555 Farnam St., Suite 222
Omaha, Nebraska 68131
402-943-1300