The Sunshine Lady’s Unique Grant Program

Through her Sunshine Lady Foundation, Doris Buffet, the sister of business tycoon Warren Buffet, distributes $10,000 Learn by Giving grants to colleges and universities. College students enrolled in philanthropy-related courses decide what local charity or charities are most deserving of the grant money. They can give the entire $10,000 to one organization or can make as many as 20 smaller grants.

Doris Buffett

This fall, students in a class called “Philanthropy and Civic Engagement” at the State University of New York in Cortland will be the latest recipient of a Learn by Giving grant. They will accept proposals, make evaluations of the merit of those proposals, and decide which organization or groups will receive the money. All $10,000 must be distributed. Not one penny of the grant can be used to fund research or for administrative costs.

Other colleges and universities that have received Learn by Giving grants include Cornell University, New York University, the University of California at Berkeley, SUNY Binghamton, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Georgetown University.

Doris Buffett has reportedly given away more than $120 million over the past 15 years. Her biography by Michael Zitz is entitled, Giving It All Away.