Gates, Buffet favour small scale philanthropy

Saturday, 02 October 2010, 17:48 IST   |    1 Comments
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Gates, Buffet favour small scale philanthropy
Beijing: U.S. billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said small scale philanthropy is "more admirable" than large scale ones. "I particularly admire people who are engaged in small scale philanthropy," investment baron Buffett said at a press conference here. "The two are very complementary, and it is great to develop them in parallel," Gates, the Microsoft founder, said when talking about small and large scale philanthropy. Buffett and Gates, who have already persuaded 40 wealthy US individuals to hand over more than half of their fortunes, chaired a closed-door charity banquet with the Chinese wealthy Wednesday night. They said the Chinese super-rich have "no reluctance" to talk about philanthropy. "About 25 to 30 people among the guests talked about philanthropy. We talked about our own experiences in the US," Buffett said. Gates noted that most of Chinese billionaires were the first generation in their family to accumulate wealth. They were not very familiar with the charity work, which was still at an early stage in China, he added. Both Gates and Buffett believed exchanges among philanthropists were important in China to promote charity. One can learn constantly by exchanging experiences of success and failure, Gates suggested.
Source: IANS