Tom Werner, Warren Buffett To Help Students Learn About Charitable Giving in Online Course

Have you ever thought about what you might do with $100,000?

Well, billionaire Warren Buffett is giving students enrolled in an online class the opportunity to decide how to spend $100,000 of his sister’s money, according to The Associated Press. The course will teach students about philanthropy and will feature advice from the likes of Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr.

More than 4,000 people have signed up for the course, and the amount of money being given away could increase if more people sign up. Buffett is on a mission to gradually give away all of his $58 billion Berkshire Hathaway stock while his sister, Doris, has already given more than $150 million away in an attempt to redistribute her wealth before she dies.

Advice from the big-name givers will be featured at the end of each of the six class sessions talking about different aspects of philanthropy.

Werner, along with Red Sox principal owner John Henry and president/CEO Larry Lucchino, established the Red Sox Foundation immediately after purchasing the team in 2002. The foundation supports a wide variety of nonprofits and its charitable donations, after just eight seasons, are the biggest in Major League Baseball, giving away millions of dollars each year, according to the Learning by Giving Foundation.

The Giving With Purpose online course is modeled after a class that has been taught at universities around the country.  The class taught in schools allows students to give away $10,000 after evaluating several nonprofits and learning about effective giving.