巴菲特致股东的信（1981年）⑧股东指定捐赠

Shareholder Designated Contributions

Our new program enabling shareholders to designate the recipients of corporate charitable contributions was greeted with extraordinary enthusiasm. A copy of the letter sent October 14, 1981 describing this program appears on pages 51-53. Of 932,206 shares eligible for participation (shares where the name of the actual owner appeared on our stockholder record), 95.6% responded. Even excluding Buffet-related shares, the response topped 90%.

股东指定捐赠

我们让使得所有股东皆能指定其个别捐赠单位的新计划受到广大回响，在932,206张有效股份中(即在本公司股份系由本人登记者)，有95.6%回复，而在即使不包含本人股份的情况下，也有超过90%的成绩。

In addition, more than 3% of our shareholders voluntarily wrote letters or notes, all but one approving of the program. Both the level of participation and of commentary surpass any shareholder response we have witnessed, even when such response has been intensively solicited by corporate staff and highly paid professional proxy organizations. In contrast, your extraordinary level of response occurred without even the nudge of a company-provided return envelope. This self-propelled behavior speaks well for the program, and speaks well for our shareholders.

此外有3%的股东主动写信来支持本计划，而股东参与的热烈与提供的意见，也是我们前所未见的，这种自动自发的态度说明了本计划成功与否，也可看出伯克希尔股东的天性。

Apparently the owners of our corporation like both possessing and exercising the ability to determine where gifts of their funds shall be made. The “father-knows-best” school of corporate governance will be surprised to find that none of our shareholders sent in a designation sheet with instructions that the officers of Berkshire - in their superior wisdom, of course - make the decision on charitable funds applicable to his shares. Nor did anyone suggest that his share of our charitable funds be used to match contributions made by our corporate directors to charities of the directors’ choice (a popular, proliferating and non-publicized policy at many large corporations).

很明显的，他们不但希望能拥有且能自由掌控其所欲捐赠金钱的去向，教授父权式的管理学院可能会惊讶的发现，没有一位股东表示希望由伯克希尔的经营阶层来帮他们作决定或是依董监事捐赠比例行事(这是目前一般美国大企业普遍的作法)

All told, $1,783,655 of shareholder-designed contributions were distributed to about 675 charities. In addition, Berkshire and subsidiaries continue to make certain contributions pursuant to local level decisions made by our operating managers.

除了由伯克希尔及其子公司经营阶层决定的捐献外，总计1,783,655美元的股东指定捐赠款共分配给675个慈善机关团体。

There will be some years, perhaps two or three out of ten, when contributions by Berkshire will produce substandard tax deductions - or none at all. In those years we will not effect our shareholder designated charitable program. In all other years we expect to inform you about October 10th of the amount per share that you may designate. A reply form will accompany the notice, and you will be given about three weeks to respond with your designation. To qualify, your shares must be registered in your own name or the name of an owning trust, corporation, partnership or estate, if applicable, on our stockholder list of September 30th, or the Friday preceding if such date falls on a Saturday or Sunday.

往后几年伯克希尔将会因这项捐款计划获得些许的税负抵减，而每年十月十日以前，我们将会通知股东每股可捐赠的金额，你有三个礼拜的时间可以作决定，为免丧失资格，股份须确实由你本人名义登记。

未来几年，或许每十年中有两到三年，伯克希尔的捐款将产生标准之外的税收减免——或者根本没有。在那些年，我们将不影响我们的股东指定慈善计划。在所有其他年度，我们预计将于10月10日通知你们可指定的每股金额。通知将附带一份回复表格，您将有大约三周的时间来做决定。要符合资格，您的股份必须在9月30日的股东名单上以您自己的名义或拥有信托、公司、合伙企业或房地产的名义(如适用)登记，如果该日期是周六或周日，则在周五之前登记。

Our only disappointment with this program in 1981 was that some of our shareholders, through no fault of their own, missed the opportunity to participate. The Treasury Department ruling allowing us to proceed without tax uncertainty was received early in October. The ruling did not cover participation by shareholders whose stock was registered in the name of nominees, such as brokers, and additionally required that the owners of all designating shares make certain assurances to Berkshire. These assurances could not be given us in effective form by nominee holders.

对于去年这项计划我们惟一感到遗憾的是，有些股东错过了此次机会未能参加，虽然不是因为自身的错误。由于税务单位的解释令于十月初才下来，并规定股份由代理人或经纪人名义登记者不适用，由于时间紧迫，再加上联络前述股东仍须透过其代理人，使得部份股东没能参加，在此我们强烈呼吁那些股票经纪人尽速通知其客户，以免股东的权利被剥夺，

Under these circumstances, we attempted to communicate with all of our owners promptly (via the October 14th letter) so that, if they wished, they could prepare themselves to participate by the November 13th record date. It was particularly important that this information be communicated promptly to stockholders whose holdings were in nominee name, since they would not be eligible unless they took action to re-register their shares before the record date.

在这种情况下，我们试图及时(通过10月14日的信函)与我们的所有股东沟通，以便如果他们愿意，他们可以在11月13日记录日期之前准备参加。特别重要的是，这些信息应及时传达给以经纪人名义持有股份的股东，因为除非他们在记录日期之前采取行动重新登记他们的股份，否则他们将没有资格。

Unfortunately, communication to such non-record shareholders could take place only through the nominees. We therefore strongly urged those nominees, mostly brokerage houses, to promptly transmit our letter to the real owners. We explained that their failure to do so could deprive such owners of an important benefit.

不幸的是，与这些未登记股东的沟通只能通过代名人进行。因此，我们强烈敦促这些代名人，主要是经纪公司，及时将我们的信传递给真正的所有者。我们解释了，如果他们不这样做，可能会剥夺这些所有者的重要利益。

The results from our urgings would not strengthen the case for private ownership of the U.S. Postal Service. Many of our shareholders never heard from their brokers (as some shareholders told us after reading news accounts of the program). Others were forwarded our letter too late for action.

我们敦促的结果并没有起到太大作用。我们的许多股东从未从他们的经纪人那里听到过消息(正如一些股东在阅读了有关该计划的新闻报道后告诉我们的那样)。其他人收到我们的信后来不及采取行动。

One of the largest brokerage houses claiming to hold stock for sixty of its clients (about 4% of our shareholder population), apparently transmitted our letter about three weeks after receipt - too late for any of the sixty to participate. (Such lassitude did not pervade all departments of that firm; it billed Berkshire for mailing services within six days of that belated and ineffectual action.)

其中有家证券经纪商代表六十位股东(约占4%强股权)很明显地在接到邮件三个礼拜后，才将之转到客户的手上。讽刺的是，该公司并非所有部门皆如此懒散，收取邮寄邮件的费用帐单在六天内就送到伯克希尔公司。

We recite such horror stories for two reasons: (1) if you wish to participate in future designated contribution programs, be sure to have your stock registered in your name well before September 30th; and (2) even if you don’t care to participate and prefer to leave your stock in nominee form, it would be wise to have at least one share registered in your own name. By so doing, you can be sure that you will be notified of any important corporate news at the same time as all other shareholders.

我们之所以告诉大家这件事有两个理由：(1)若你希望参加这项股东指定捐赠计划的话，请务必将你的股份在九月底以前改登记在自己的名下；(2)就算你不想参加，最好还是至少将一股登记在自己的名下，如此才能确保你与其它股东一样在第一时间知道有关公司的重大消息。

The designated-contributions idea, along with many other ideas that have turned out well for us, was conceived by Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire and Chairman of Blue Chip. Irrespective of titles, Charlie and I work as partners in managing all controlled companies. To almost a sinful degree, we enjoy our work as managing partners. And we enjoy having you as our financial partners.

最后包含这项股东指定捐赠计划在内的许多很好的主意，都是由伯克希尔公司的副董事长兼蓝筹印花的董事长查理.芒格所构思，不管职称为何，查理跟我皆以执行合伙人的心态管理所有事业，而各位股东就像是我们一般的合伙人一样。

Warren E. Buffett
Chairman of the Board

沃伦.巴菲特
董事会主席

All told, $1,783,655 of shareholder-designed contributions were distributed to about 675 charities. In addition, Berkshire and subsidiaries continue to make certain contributions pursuant to local level decisions made by our operating managers.

The results from our urgings would not strengthen the case for private ownership of the U.S. Postal Service. Many of our shareholders never heard from their brokers (as some shareholders told us after reading news accounts of the program). Others were forwarded our letter too late for action.

Warren E. Buffett Chairman of the Board

Warren E. Buffett
Chairman of the Board