Development Co-operation Profiles

Susan T. Buffett Foundation

Introduction

The Susan T. Buffett Foundation is a charitable organisation formed in 1964 in Omaha, Nebraska, by investor and industrialist Warren Buffett as a vehicle to manage his charitable giving. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation was renamed in honour of his wife, Susan Buffett, who passed away in 2004. As regards its international activities, the foundation focuses primarily on reproductive health services.

This profile is based on estimates using information available in the Susan T. Buffett Foundation’s publicly available tax return forms (990-PF).

Private development finance

The Susan T. Buffett Foundation provided USD 237 million for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents a decrease of 16.5% in real terms.

 

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Bilateral and multilateral allocations

In 2022, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation channelled its development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 189.5 million), public sector institutions (USD 25.6 million) and multilateral organisations (USD 17.3 million).

 

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Multilateral channels

In 2022, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation provided USD 17.3 million to the multilateral system, representing 7.3% of its development finance, all of which was earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes. These multilateral contributions were provided to the World Bank Group (USD 15 million) and the United Nations (UN) system (USD 2.3 million).

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 189.5 million of the Susan T. Buffett Foundation’s gross development finance, all of which was earmarked to specific projects or programmes.

Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic and thematic focus

In 2022, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa. USD 126.4 million was allocated to Africa, accounting for 53.3% of gross development finance. A sum of USD 107.5 million (45.3%) was unspecified by region in 2022, mainly including multi-regional programmes.

Figure. Bilateral private development finance by recipient country

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In 2022, 51.8% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya.

 

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Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 103 million (43.5%) of the Susan T. Buffett Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2022, followed by lower middle-income countries (9.3%), noting that USD 111 million (46.8%) was unallocated by income group.

 

Notes: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Furthermore, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation allocated USD 94.4 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2022.

Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts reached USD 72.9 million in 2022, representing 30.8% of the Susan T. Buffett Foundation’s development finance. Of this, extremely fragile contexts received a sum of USD 2.5 million.

 

Notes: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral contributions that are allocated by country.

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Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

Sectors

In 2022, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation’s contributions were allocated to social infrastructure and services, notably health and population.

 

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Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to good health and well-being (SDG 3) and gender equality (SDG 5) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

 

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Additional resources

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.