Susan A. Buffett

Early Life and Family

Susan Alice Buffett was born on July 30, 1953 in Omaha, Nebraska. She is the oldest daughter of Warren and Susan Thompson Buffett.

Buffett studied at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at the University of California, Irvine. Eventually, she dropped out and found work as an administrative assistant.³

She claims to have been in her early twenties when she found out that her father was a wealthy man. She claims to have first learned about her father’s wealth when she read an article in the Wall Street Journal.⁴

Buffett moved to Washington D.C. and married Allen Greenberg, a lawyer for Public Citizen, a left-of-center group, in 1983. In the late 1980s, the couple moved back to Omaha, and Greenberg went to work at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Buffett and Greenberg divorced in 1995, but Greenberg remains president of the Foundation as of 2024. ^{5 6}

In 1999, Susan Buffett started the Sherwood Foundation. It was seeded with $1 billion worth of stock in her father’s company, Berkshire Hathaway. The foundation began by focusing on local programs in Omaha focusing on early childhood education. It later began to expand to “social justice” advocacy and expanded its geographic reach.⁷

In 2006, Warren Buffett announced he was giving away his fortune. While Buffett reportedly contributed 85 percent of his wealth to the  Gates Foundation, Buffett gave $1 billion each to the Sherwood Foundation and the other Buffett family foundations.  ⁶

Philanthropy

Sherwood Foundation

Susan A. Buffett’s Sherwood Foundation originally focused on early childhood education initiatives and programs but has expanded its focus to include left-of-center “social justice” causes. By 2024, the foundation was distributing $256 million in annual grants across 830 separate awards, making it one of the largest philanthropic organizations in Nebraska. The foundation’s grantmaking has grown substantially following a series of major stock infusions: in November 2022, Warren Buffett donated more than $750 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock to his family foundations, of which Sherwood received 300,000 Class B shares as part of its portion. In June 2025, Buffett made his largest single annual donation to the five foundations, totaling $6 billion, with Sherwood receiving 660,366 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock. ^{8 9 10}

In order to receive funding from the Sherwood Foundation, recipients must agree to support certain left-of-center wing values. In keeping with the Buffett family’s vast support for abortion access, Sherwood recipients must support legalized abortion and health care providers must provide women with access to abortions. Recipients must support providing services without a religious bias or proselytization. Finally, the foundation has expressed a desire to “undo systematic oppression” and seek “economic justice.” ¹¹

Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation

Susan Buffett is the chair of the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. The organization is reportedly the largest non-governmental funder “reproductive health and family planning,” including pro-abortion policies and the provision of abortion and contraception.¹² STBF is a major funder of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, its advocacy affiliate Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and a number of Planned Parenthood regional affiliates, with a 2012 analysis finding the organization had provided Planned Parenthood with $289 million from 2001-2012.¹³

As of 2023, STBF reported assets of $2,272,738,773 and distributed $695,209,110 in grants, according to its tax filings. The foundation’s global grantmaking, which focuses heavily on reproductive health and family planning in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, totaled $397.7 million in 2023 alone, according to the OECD, with the majority directed toward gender equality initiatives. ^{14 15}

Role in Warren Buffett’s Estate Plan

In June 2024, Warren Buffett revised his estate plan in a significant departure from his prior intention to leave the bulk of his fortune to the Gates Foundation. Under the revised plan, more than 99 percent of his remaining estate at the time of his death will flow into a new charitable trust to be administered by his three children, Susan, Howard, and Peter, who must reach a unanimous agreement on how to disburse the funds over a ten-year period. In announcing the change, Buffett publicly stated that the Gates Foundation would receive no further contributions after his death. As of mid-2025, Buffett’s net worth was estimated at approximately $140 billion, making the eventual charitable trust one of the largest in history. Observers have noted that the requirement for unanimous consent among siblings with divergent philanthropic priorities may create governance challenges. ^{1 16}

Susan Buffett has indicated that if the trust receives a significant influx of funding, Sherwood’s grantmaking is likely to remain concentrated in Nebraska, consistent with the foundation’s existing focus. ¹

Other Political Activities

Susan Buffett is also a donor to Democratic candidates and liberal causes. In 2024, Buffett donated $1,512.50 to Democratic candidates and causes. ¹⁷ In 2022, she donated $7,775. ¹⁸ In 2020, she donated nearly $28,000. ¹⁹

Beyond direct candidate contributions, Buffett’s Sherwood Foundation donated $1 million in 2018 to support the March for Our Lives gun-control movement. ²⁰ Buffett has also used the Sherwood Foundation to fund abortion access infrastructure in Nebraska and Iowa. According to tax filings, the foundation provides ongoing multi-million-dollar support to the Reproductive Health Collaborative of Nebraska, the Nebraska Abortion and Reproductive Justice Fund, and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate covering Iowa and Nebraska. ²¹