Buffett Is Willing to Do Lunch Again for Charity

Warren Buffett, who last week raised $250,100 for charity by auctioning himself as a lunch date, said he’s willing to make three more dates -- at $250,000 each -- to raise more than $1 million for a San Francisco nonprofit group.

Two, maybe three, companies want to match the winning bid for a date with the billionaire that was auctioned last week on EBay Inc.’s Web site, the head of the charity said.

Buffett is the world’s second-richest man and the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

“There are three more takers, I hear,” said Buffett, who was attending the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. “That’s great.”

On Friday, Greenlight Capital Inc.’s David Einhorn, one of the founders of the New York-based investment-management firm, placed the original winning $250,100 bid in the EBay auction, topping 140 other offers.

Proceeds from the luncheons will go to the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides programs for about 30,000 homeless and otherwise needy people. Buffett became involved with Glide after his wife introduced him to the Rev. Cecil Williams, the head of the foundation, four years ago.

Three other companies contacted Williams after the auction, agreeing to match Einhorn’s bid for a similar dining experience with Buffett, Williams said.

Williams declined to identify the companies, two of which he said have confirmed that they will match the bid and one that is considering it. The companies had participated in the auction, but fell short of the winning bid.

Williams contacted Einhorn, who agreed to allow the matching donations on the condition that Buffett play bridge with him.

“Oh, my God, it’s incredible,” Williams said. “It’s been a hard way to go sometimes, but we’ve always pulled it off until two or three years ago when the bottom fell out, as it did for most people.”

Glide raised less than $33,000 annually from the Buffett auction in the last three years.

Einhorn won a lunch for eight people in New York between May 5 and 14, 2004, although an earlier appointment could be arranged in Omaha, where Berkshire is based. Williams said the other lunches probably would be held in Omaha under similar circumstances.

“I am thrilled that these other bidders saw the value of this gift for the benefit of the homeless and decided to match it,” Einhorn said in a statement.

Buffett has a fortune of more than $30 billion, second only to Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates.