Warren Watch: A really big scoop

Omaha is likely to miss out on a spoonful of Warren Buffett, but don't worry.

Here's the scoop:

Dairy Queen's Blizzardmobile was in Omaha in May for the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which, at Buffett's direction, bought Dairy Queen in 1998.

Dairy Queen President and CEO John Gainor brought along a 33-inch, 5-pound metal replica of the red plastic spoons that Dairy Queen hands out by the millions with its ice cream treats. The tricked-out Blizzardmobile is decorated with the outsized spoons and other dessert-style fixtures.

After a lunch with Berkshire's CEOs the day before the meeting, Buffett joined Gainor in the Qwest Center to autograph the spoon's handle. Now the spoon is up for auction on eBay.

Proceeds will go to the Children's Miracle Network, a national group that raises money for 170 hospitals that specialize in treating children, and then to Gillette Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, which also is Dairy Queen's home base.

Children's Hospital & Medical Center of Omaha, Nebraska's affiliate of the national network, gets slightly more than $1 million a year from the network's campaigns and events. The money is used for programs that help children cope with being admitted to the hospital or receiving an unhappy diagnosis, among other uses, spokeswoman Cherie Lytle said.

Dairy Queen provides some direct support for the Omaha hospital by sponsoring the national network's Miracle Treat Day, scheduled this year for Aug. 5 in 19 Nebraska communities.

Participating Dairy Queens send the hospital $1 or more for each Blizzard purchased that day in Beatrice, Bellevue, Blair, Brady, Central City, Columbus, Cozad, Fremont, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, Lexington, Lincoln, Omaha, North Platte, Papillion, Seward, Valley and West Point.

Last year the event raised $4.6 million nationally, with $45,302 going to the Omaha hospital.

As for the giant spoon, bidding started at $1 and by week's end was in the thousands. The auction continues through 9 p.m. Friday, so the winning bid could be much more.

Dairy Queen spokesman Dean Peters said he hopes the spoon brings at least as much as the custom-designed and autographed ukulele auctioned in 2006, playing off Buffett's skill on the ukulele. A Las Vegas casino paid $11,211.11 for the instrument, and the money went to Children's Hospital of Omaha, also through the Children's Miracle Network.

How high could the bidding go?

In June, an anonymous person bid $2.6 million in another charity auction to have lunch with Buffett, and the bidder probably won't even get a spoon as a souvenir.

Abortion training

A New York Times Magazine article last Sunday by Emily Bazelon says the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation funds two programs that provide abortion training for doctors at medical schools around the country.

The foundation has long made donations to family-planning, birth control and abortion-related groups. Many of the foundation's causes are aimed at supporting women's rights.

The Times story, titled “The New Abortion Providers,” said the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program has provided training money to 58 U.S. and Canadian medical school campuses. The other program is the Family Planning Fellowship. Both are directed by Uta Landy, a former director of the National Abortion Federation.

Officials from the program declined to identify their funding source, but Bazelon wrote that the funding comes from the Buffett Foundation, which got its initial large contribution from the estate of Buffett's late wife, Susan, and receives annual donations from Buffett.

Buffett and foundation officials declined to comment for the Times story.

Bolder Giving

Buffett and friends Bill and Melinda Gates want billionaires to pledge at least half their money to charity, while another group is asking the rest of us to pledge “bolder giving.”

In fact, this month Buffett and the Gates Foundation made a three-year, $675,000 grant to Bolder Giving, formed in 2007 to encourage people to increase the amount of money they donate. With that money, Bolder Giving hired Jason Franklin as its first executive director and began ramping up its outreach and pledging program.

Last month, Buffett and the Gateses began their “Giving Pledge” campaign, asking billionaires to pledge at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity. Bolder Giving, Franklin said, “is focused on everyone with less than a billion.”

Bolder Giving was founded by Christopher and Anne Ellinger of Arlington, Mass., following up on the interest they developed in donors after receiving an inheritance from Christopher's grandmother. They gave almost all of it away and then wrote an influential book, “We Gave Away a Fortune,” in 1992.

Bolder Giving established a website and began campaigning to encourage more charitable pledges, using inspirational stories about donors. One of those givers was Buffett's sister Doris, whose Sunshine Lady Foundation makes a wide range of donations.

The Gates Foundation heard about Bolder Giving and made the grant.

So far, about 150 people have signed the online, nonbinding pledge at boldergiving.org: “I commit to explore this year how to become bolder in my giving.”

Each signer works out a giving plan and requests follow-up from Bolder Giving. The nonprofit group, which is moving from Boston to New York City, has work sheets, calculators and other materials to help donors stay on track.

“We can give a lot more than we think,” Franklin said. “We see this giving process as a journey. Our hope is to support people along that journey. Once you're inspired, you often get stuck if you don't have the support to translate that inspiration into action.”

Office closing

Berkshire subsidiary NetJets is closing an office in Okatie, S.C., and moving many of its functions to NetJets' headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, by October, the Island Packet newspaper of Bluffton, S.C., reported.

Omahan David Sokol was put in charge of the fractional jet ownership company last year after it posted big losses. Sokol restored profitability, largely by cutting expenses.

Sokol told Aviation International News earlier this month that most of the international operations in South Carolina and Georgia would move to Columbus, leaving about 25 of the 90 jobs now in those states.

“The decision was made after detailed analysis and careful deliberation and is the result of NetJets' ongoing, long-term business planning process that began in the fall,” Sokol said.

The Okatie office houses dispatchers, travel agents, accounting personnel and supervisors for the company's Gulfstream jets, which are big enough to fly international routes, the newspaper said.

National Indemnity

Reuters reported that an Omaha insurance division of Berkshire will receive a $2 billion premium to assume $1.6 billion in risks from asbestos and environmental pollution held by CNA Financial Corp., a commercial insurance company.

The agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, has a $4 billion limit. It gives National Indemnity Insurance of Omaha authority to collect $200 million in receivable accounts and makes Berkshire responsible for handling claims for damage.

Berkshire can invest the $2 billion while the claims are sorted out, a process that could take years. CNA is 90 percent owned by Loews Corp.

Contact the writer:

444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com

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