When the news came out last year that Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates were divorced, the immediate question was whether their foundation would soon lose access to the founder’s substantial resources. ..
On Wednesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that its co-founders will continue to invest, significantly speeding up donations in areas such as global health, economic development, gender equality and education. Seems to have answered the question. Already in most cases, it is already the largest charitable foundation in the world.
The Foundation said it would increase its grants from nearly $ 6 billion a year before the pandemic to $ 9 billion a year by 2026.Applying this $ 3 billion increase in context, George Soros and the Open Society Foundations, which themselves fund themselves, reported the country’s largest philanthropic activity. Total spending in 2020 Of $ 1.4 billion.
Gates said on Wednesday, after promising to inject another $ 15 billion into the group’s endowment last summer, he would fulfill that promise this month, adding $ 5 billion to a total of $ 20 billion. ..
And maybe there’s more money where it came from. “For the future, my plan is to donate all the wealth to the Foundation, except for myself and my family,” Gates says. Forbes quote He has a $ 122 billion fortune, which he wrote on his personal blog, Gates Notes, on Wednesday.
“I move down and eventually get off the list of the wealthiest people in the world,” Gates added. “Giving me this money is not a sacrifice at all. I am honored to be able to participate in tackling these major challenges.”
Each year, the Foundation receives a gift from investor Warren E. Buffett in the form of shares in his company Berkshire Hathaway. This year’s gift was worth $ 3.1 billion last month. Overall, Buffett donated about $ 36 billion to the Foundation. The Foundation estimates that if there is a new fund, it will grow to $ 70 billion.
Mark Suzuman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said the Foundation will not expand its focus. Rather, we believe that the urgency of existing projects, such as the fight against polio and malaria around the world and the fight against learning losses in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, justifies higher spending.
Suzuman warned that increasing spending in an effective way is not easy. “At that scale, giving is actually very complicated and we learned that it’s a difficult way,” he said in an interview.
“We are now actively considering what we can and should do to avoid the food security crisis,” he added.
The Foundation has long been admired for its leading role in global philanthropy, but its influence has also been scrutinized. For example, one of the largest donors in the World Health Organization, and in poor countries, the size of Foundation donations, intentionally or otherwise, sets many of the priorities of important ministries such as health and education. It means that it can be the case.
Gates wrote in his blog that the pace of donations has accelerated in response to many of the challenges facing the world today, including wars in Ukraine, pandemics, rising inflation and climate change.
In a statement, French Gates said: This additional spending supports a fair and inclusive recovery and the key efforts of our partners to promote a healthier and more equal future. “
Under federal tax law, private foundations are required to donate about 5% of their donations each year, which is about $ 3.5 billion for the Gates Foundation.
The Foundation has undergone major changes over the past year. Buffett resigned from one of the three councilors last summer. She announced that Gates and French Gates had agreed to leave the Foundation if they found that they could not work together. In January, the Foundation announced that it would create a new steering committee that would include Gates, French Gates, Suzuman, and three outsiders.
“It’s important to do the opposite when the urge can be inward,” Minouch Shafik, director of the London School of Economics, said in a statement Wednesday. “Strengthening our determination and our contributions is the only way to reverse these trends.”
Gates added: “The great crisis of our time requires us all to do more.”
