Buffett, Gates lead campaign for billionaire donors

Investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced yesterday that they are asking hundreds of billionaire Americans to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity.

Buffett, Gates and his wife, Melinda, have held a series of dinners with rich Americans in the past year to urge them to make a philanthropic pledge.

They have named the campaign the Giving Pledge and are asking those who commit to give away at least half their fortune during their lifetime or after their death.

Buffett, 79, has pledged to donate 99 percent of his fortune to the Gates Foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization. Buffett made his fortune with insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

An adviser to Gates and Buffett said that four billionaires had agreed to announce their pledge: real estate and construction billionaire Eli Broad; venture capitalist John Doerr, media entrepreneur Gerry Lenfest and former Cisco Systems chairman John Morgridge.

- Reuters