Billionaire Warren Buffett is auctioning off a high-tech signed portrait of himself to raise money for one of his favorite charities, and the bidding has already topped $30,000.

Philanthropists Melinda French Gates, MacKenzie Scott and the family foundation of billionaire Lynn Schusterman awarded $40 million Thursday to four gender equality projects.

A local nonprofit that believes in inspiring girls and young women to be “strong, bold and smart,” Girls Inc. of San Antonio is taking a slightly different approach to improving their academic performance.

SAN ANTONIO – The first week of the new school year is close to over, but students and parents are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t for distance learning. If the desk in their bedroom, learning pod with friends or any other accommodation made isn’t working, Girls Inc. of San Antonio hopes that their new program can help. The program, Girls Inc. Smart i-Café is open to all girls in third through eighth grade. “Then, when school’s done for the day, whether that’s half day (or) three o’clock, we have space so we can have fun.”AdGirls Inc of San Antonio creates new program to help with distance learning. “We can serve up to about 35 to 40 girls socially distanced.” The second and third floor of the Girls Inc. of San Antonio campus is exclusively reserved for the i-Smart Café.

SAN ANTONIO – The nonprofit Girls Inc. and City Council members have teamed up to empower middle school girls before they start classes. It’s for reasons such as these that Girls Inc. has continued its annual back-to-school conference for middle school girls, which is now in its fourth year. “(Girls would) be rude and ugly to each other instead of being nice and helpful and positive,” said Ivori Chapman, a seventh grader at Longfellow Middle School. She knows all too well that being a girl in middle school is hard. Mia Cardenas, a seventh grader at Concordia Middle School, said she has also experienced bullying.