The California homeless charity, which received $53 million over the years from investors wanting a private lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett, has found a new director to auction off a meal with.
The Glide Foundation said Tuesday it will hold an auction on eBay next month for a private lunch with Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff. The San Francisco-based charity helps homeless people and people in poverty in the same city where Benioff oversees a software empire.
The last auction of a lunch with Buffett two years ago raised a record $19 million, which is unlikely to be matched. The respected investor has legions of devoted followers who fill an arena in Omaha every spring to hear Buffett’s insights during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, and he had said in advance that 2022 would be his last auction.
Still, Glide hopes the Benioff auction will also raise significant funds to support the organization’s $31 million budget, which provides meals, health care, job training, rehabilitation and housing for the poor and homeless. Buffett said he was always amazed at how the charity helped people in difficult situations find hope again.
“We are so grateful that Marc Benioff is continuing Warren Buffett’s legacy by supporting San Francisco’s most vulnerable,” said Dr. Gina M. Fromer, president and CEO of Glide.
Buffett’s first wife, Susie, introduced him to Glide after she volunteered there after moving to the city, and she suggested starting the lunch auction in 2000. She died in 2004, but the band survived.
Buffett endorsed the new arrangement from his office at Berkshire’s small headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Benioff has urged his fellow CEOs to do more to help the homeless and fix the inequalities in society they have helped create. He has also taken positions on polarizing issues such as gay rights, climate change and gun control.
“The baton is in good hands with Marc Benioff,” said Buffett. “He’s going to do a great job and improve on what I’ve done over the years. With Marc’s enthusiasm and commitment, along with GLIDE’s leadership and volunteers, GLIDE will continue to provide its essential services to San Francisco.”
Benioff said he is “incredibly humbled to continue Warren’s legacy” with the luncheon auction.
Like the Buffett auctions, the weeklong Benioff Lunch Auction begins May 5 with an opening bid of $25,000 and runs through June 10.
Organizers have a lot of work to do as they try to match Buffett’s record. As of 2008, each winning bid for lunch with the investment giant was $1 million.
A past winner, Ted Weschler, was offered a job by Buffett’s company after spending nearly $5.3 million on two auctions in 2010 and 2011. Weschler now works as an investment manager for the conglomerate, which owns an eclectic range of companies, including Geico Insurance, BNSF Railroad, See’s Candy, several major utilities and Dairy Queen.
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