Editorial: A lion’s share

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 | 8:37 a.m.

Warren Buffett has taken philanthropy to billion-dollar heights with his plan to give more than 80 percent of his fortune to charity.

Buffett, the second-richest person in the world, announced Sunday that he is donating about $37 billion of the shares he owns in his company Berkshire Hathaway to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is considered the richest person in the world.

What does it mean when the globe's top two billionaires pool their wealth? Better education for American children and cures for the world's most debilitating diseases, Gates said Monday. According to a story by the Associated Press, Gates and his wife said they were "awed" by Buffett's donation.

It is an apt description for the type of philanthropy that harkens to another era - a time when such families as the Carnegies, Mellons and Rockefellers created foundations and donated large portions of their vast fortunes for the betterment of society.

The 75-year-old Buffett announced Monday that he also would donate $1 billion to his own foundation and those run by each of his three children. His gift to the Gates foundation will double the amount that organization spent last year on its projects that include tackling health challenges and poverty in developing countries and improving America's public libraries, the AP reports.

A spokeswoman for Independent Sector, a coalition of more than 500 charities and foundations, said she was certain that "lots of young, wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes" are watching these business idols and perhaps will follow suit.

We hope that's true. There is no time like the present to recapture America's golden age of giving, and Buffett has set a shining example.