When Warren Buffett called, Judy Faulkner agreed to meet him in Omaha for dinner.

Faulkner, the billionaire founder and CEO of Verona, Wisconsin-based medical records giant Epic Systems, had also made her fortune in the Midwest. In a dining room at the Happy Hollow Club, Buffett made a pitch for her to sign The Giving Pledge, a commitment by the world’s wealthiest people to give away the majority of their money to charitable causes. “I thought, since I'm trying to give away my money, it'd be nice to work with people who have been doing this,” Faulkner, 81, told Forbes.

Faulkner, who Forbes estimates is worth $7.7 billion, signed the pledge in 2015, but she didn’t formalize her philanthropic plans until 2019 when she established Seattle-based Roots & Wings. That family foundation is run by Faulkner’s youngest daughter Shana Dall’Osto, 45, who was born in 1979 – the same year Epic was founded. Despite Faulkner’s wishes that all three of her children become computer programmers like herself (only one did), Dall’Osto instead joined the Peace Corps, then AmeriCorps and later a children’s literacy nonprofit before getting a master’s degree in nonprofit management.

Over the past five years, Roots & Wings has quietly given away $200 million to 320 different organizations focused on various aspects of early childhood development (see the list of grantees here). Dall’Osto told Forbes the foundation has been ramping up its grant-making as Faulkner wants “to do more of her giving while she's living.” Within the next few years, she estimates Root & Wings will start granting around $100 million annually to organizations across the country focused on health, education and wellbeing of kids and their families. “One of our goals is that children have a strong start in life so they can reach their full potential,” Dall’Osto said. “We see that strong start as the roots and their full potential as the wings.”

Shana Dall'Osto (center) with Roots & Wings staff in Seattle, WA.

Throughout her career, Faulkner has bucked convention in the way she conducts business. While most of her competitors have used outside money and acquisitions to drive software development, Epic, which........

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