NEW YORK ¨C An online auction for the right to dine with billionaire investor Warren Buffett and raise money for a San Francisco charity has started strongly, with the top bid surpassing $1 million in less than a day.

Buffett has raised $17.8 million in 15 prior annual auctions for Glide, a charity in San Francisco¡¯s Tenderloin district that provides food, health care, rehabilitation and other services for the poor and homeless.

As of 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT) Monday, the top bid was $1,000,100 in the eBay auction, which ends at 10:30 p.m. EDT Friday (0230 GMT Saturday).

That bid matches the seventh-highest amount ever paid, which occurred in 2013, and may go higher because bids often soar in the last hour. The auction began Sunday night, with a $25,000 minimum bid.

¡°We¡¯re very happy, very happy,¡± the Rev. Cecil Williams, the co-founder of Glide, said in a phone interview. ¡°We expect the bidding to take off, but $1 million coming this early is somewhat surprising.¡±

This year¡¯s winner can bring up to seven friends to dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in Manhattan.

Some past winners chose to dine at a steakhouse in Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Last year¡¯s winner, Andy Chua of Singapore, bid $2,166,766. The record bid, in 2012, was $3,456,789, submitted anonymously.

One winner, Ted Weschler, ended up working for Buffett as a Berkshire portfolio manager after paying a combined $5.25 million to win the 2010 and 2011 auctions.

The auctions began in 2000 after Buffett was introduced to Glide by his first wife, Susan, who died in 2004.

¡°Nobody who¡¯s donated to Glide has ever felt short-changed,¡± Buffett said in a statement last month.

Williams, a community leader and pastor at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, said he visited Buffett two weeks ago in Omaha to discuss Glide¡¯s work.

¡°We want to empower our people and find resources to help us pull this off, and touch the lives of people who are hurting most,¡± Williams said.

Buffett¡¯s involvement helps, he added. ¡°When Buffett speaks, people listen,¡± Williams said. ¡°He is a man of deep conviction.¡±

Buffett is worth about $70.4 billion, making him the world¡¯s fourth-richest person, Forbes magazine said on Monday.