Class gets chance to give away $10,000
Published: December 6, 2006
Jennifer Pierotti knew giving away some of Doris Buffett’s money would be fun.
The University of Mary Washington student also discovered it wasn’t easy. Pierotti was among 20 students enrolled in a philanthropy course with an assignment to award $10,000 in grants funded by Buffett, sister of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Pierotti, 21, chaired the class committee that reviewed and scored grant applications.
“It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun,” said Pierotti, who graduated from Douglas S. Freeman High School in Henrico County and plans to graduate this spring from the university after three years. She signed up for the class because it seemed to fit her self-made, pre-law major in public-interest policy.
“It sounded like such a unique experience,” she said.
This semester marks the second time the university has offered “Economics of Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector.” Thirty organizations applied for grants, a 50 percent increase over last year.
Buffett, who lives part of the time in Fredericksburg and whose daughter graduated from Mary Washington, allows students to award the money as they see fit. This year’s class awarded $7,000 to a tutoring-assistance program at an apartment complex and $3,000 to a volunteer home-rehabilitation program for low-income homeowners.
“The kids are terrifically enthusiastic,” Buffett said after yesterday’s awards ceremony.
The course is slated to continue at Mary Washington for at least the next two years with funding from Buffett’s foundation, according to the university. She funds similar courses at the University of Virginia, Cornell University and Davidson College in North Carolina.
Buffett said the course might be expanded to other schools in Virginia, but nothing has been formalized, and she was not prepared to name those institutions.
Buffett, 78, and her Sunshine Lady Foundation have donated to other local causes, including giving more than $1 million to the local chapter of the Boys & Girls Club. This year she wrote a $61,000 check to cover admission fees to the city’s new pool so disadvantaged families wouldn’t have to dig into their own pockets this summer.
The Sunshine Lady Foundation is a private family foundation that invests in organizations and programs that provide educational and other opportunities for disadvantaged people, with special emphasis on the working poor and families in crisis. The foundation has awarded more than $30 million since its inception a decade ago.
Homes for America: Heritage Park America Achievement Program will use its grant from the UMW class to tutor Fredericksburg children ages 5 to 14. The group plans to hire a professional teacher and buy school supplies and computer equipment. Rebuilding Together will use its grant to establish a program to provide home-repair skills to youths.
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