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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates in 2000. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and, in the United States, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based out of Seattle, Washington in the United States, is co-chaired by Bill and Melinda Gates and Gates' father, William H. Gates, Sr.; its Chief Executive Officer is Patty Stonesifer. As of October 2006, it has an endowment of approximately US$31.9 billion.
History Initially funded by Bill Gates with US$106 million in 2000, during the foundation's first two years, funding grew to US$2 billion.The B&MGF was endowed by Bill Gates, chairman and founder of Microsoft and his wife, Melinda Gates in January 2000 through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation and the William H. Gates Foundation. On June 15 2006, Gates announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft effective July 31 2008•, to allow him to devote more time to working with the foundation. Bill and Melinda Gates, along with the singer Bono, were named by TIME as Persons of the Year 2005 for their charitable work. In the case of Bill and Melinda Gates, the work referenced was that of the B&MGF. On May 4, 2006, the foundation received the Prince of Asturias award for International Cooperation. The Warren Buffett donation On June 25, 2006, Warren Buffett, the world's second richest person after Gates, pledged to give the foundation approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares (worth US$30.7 billion on June 23 2006) spread over multiple years through annual contributions. Buffett set conditions so that these contributions do not simply increase the foundation's endowment, but effectively work as a matching contribution, doubling the Foundation's annual giving: "Buffett's gift came with three conditions for the Gates foundation: Bill or Melinda Gates must be alive and active in its administration; it must continue to qualify as a charity; and each year it must give away an amount equal to the previous year's Berkshire gift, plus another 5 percent of net assets. Buffett gave the foundation two years to abide by the third requirement." The Gates Foundation will receive 5% (500,000) of the shares in July 2006 and will receive 5% of the remaining earmarked shares in the July of each following year (475,000 in 2007, 451,250 in 2008, and so on). Activities As of 2006, the foundation has an endowment of approximately US$31.7 billion. To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, it must donate at least 5% of its assets each year. Thus the donations from the foundation each year would amount to over US$1 billion at a minimum. The Foundation has been organized, as of April 2006, into four divisions, including core operations (public relations, finance and administration, human resources, etc.), under Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Scott, and three grant-making programs: Global Health Program The President of the Global Health Program is Tachi Yamada. The Gates Foundation has quickly become a major influence upon global health; the approximately US$800 million that the foundation gives every year for global health approaches the annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization and is comparable to the funds given to fight infectious disease by the United States Agency for International Development. The Foundation currently provides 17% (US$86 million in 2006) of the world budget for the attempted eradication of poliomyelitis (polio). The Global Health Program's other significant grants include: The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization:The foundation gave The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization a donation of US$750 million on 25 January, 2005. Official site: VaccineAlliance.org, Donation press release Related links: News item at vnunet.com The Institute for OneWorld Health:The foundation gave The Institute for OneWorld Health a donation of nearly US$10 million to support the organization's work on a drug for visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Children's Vaccine Program:The Children's Vaccine Program, run by the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), received a donation of US$27 million to help vaccinate against Japanese encephalitis on 9 December, 2003. Official site: ChildrensVaccine.org, Donation press release University of Washington Department of Global Health:The foundation provided approximately US$30 million for the foundation of the new Department of Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. The donation promoted three of the Foundation's target areas: education, Pacific Northwest and global health. HIV Research:The foundation has donated a grand total of US$287 million to various HIV/AIDS researchers. The money was split between sixteen different research teams across the world, on the condition that they share their findings with one another. Related Links: News Item at BBC News United States Program Under President Allan Golston, the United States Program has made grants such as the following: Education NewSchools Venture Fund: The Foundation contributed US$30 million to help NewSchools to manage more charter schools, which aim to prepare students in historically underserved areas for college and careers. Gates Millennium Scholars:Administered by the United Negro College Fund the foundation donated US$1 billion for minority student scholarships. Official site: www.gmsp.org Gates Cambridge Scholarships:Donated US$210 million in October 2000 to help outstanding graduate students outside of the United Kingdom study at the University of Cambridge. Approximately 100 new students every year are funded. Official site: www.gates.scholarships.cam.ac.uk University Scholars Program:Donated US$20 million in 1998 to endow a scholarship program at Melinda Gates' alma mater, Duke University. The program provides full scholarships to about 10 members of each undergraduate class and one member in each class in each of the professional schools (Schools of Medicine, Business, Law, Divinity, Environment, and Nursing). The program also pays for a full-time administrator who organizes seminars to bring these scholars together for interdisciplinary discussions as well as the selection process in the Spring. Pacific Northwest Discovery Institute: Donated US$1 million in 2000 to the Discovery Institute and pledged US$9.35 million over 10 years in 2003, including US$50,000 of Bruce Chapman's US$141,000 annual salary. According to a Gates Foundation grant maker, this grant is "exclusive to the Cascadia project" on regional transportation, and it may not be used for the Institute's other activities, including promotion of intelligent design. Computer History Museum: Donated US$15 million to the museum in October, 2005. Related link: BBC.co.uk Global Development Program President Sylvia Mathews leads the Global Development Program, which combats extreme poverty through grants such as the following: Financial Services for the Poor Grameen Foundation:A $1.5 million grant allows Grameen Foundation to make more microloans, with the goal of helping five million additional families and successfully freeing 50 percent of those families from poverty within five years. Agricultural Development Rice Research:Donated US$800,000 to the Philippine Rice Research Institute to develop rice with higher amounts of micronutrients. Official site: PhilRice.gov.ph AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) The Gates Foundation has partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to enhance agricultural science and small-farm productivity in Africa, building on the Green Revolution which the Rockefeller Foundation spurred in the 1940s and 1960s. The Gates Foundation has made an initial $100 million dollar investment in this effort, to which the Rockefeller foudnation has contributed $50 million. Global Libraries Access to Learning Award:Each year an award of up to US$1 million is given to a public library or similar organization outside the United States that has an innovative program offering the public free access to information technology. Official site: Part of CLIR.org Global Special Initiatives The Foundation's Special Initiatives include responses to catastrophes as well as learning grants, which are used to experiment with new areas of giving. Currently, the Foundation is exploring water, hygiene and sanitation as a new focus within Global Development. Indian Ocean Earthquake: The foundation made total grant donations of US$3 million to various charities to help with the aid effort for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake. These charities include: Pakistan Earthquake:The foundation made a donation of US$500,000 for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.* Water, Hygiene and Sanitation The Foundation is giving the International Bank US$1,200,000 over 3 years to find new, sustainable ways to of making water, sanitation and hygiene services more affordable and safe. Criticisms The Gates Millennium Scholars fund, according to its official website's frequently asked questions section, only provides scholarships to African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Pacific Islander American or Hispanic American applicants.* An op-ed by Ernest W. Lefever, published in the Los Angeles Times on November 1, 1999, stated: "America's most celebrated college dropout had a great opportunity to boost higher education, help needy students and strike a blow against racism, but he blew it. If Bill Gates had been able to chat with Teddy Roosevelt before launching his breathtaking $1-billion program of college scholarships, America would be a better place. Unless significantly amended, Gates' 'minority' scholarships will further inflame racial tensions, delay the achievement of a colorblind society and subvert the cherished virtue of reward by merit. The Gates Millennium Scholarships for thousands of high school seniors over the next 20 years are intended to produce more scientists, engineers, doctors and educators from among American minorities, who, he claims, are woefully underrepresented in college. His commitment to arbitrarily preferred groups is bound to increase racial resentment. Gates' vague concept of 'diversity' confuses the laudable diversity of cultural talents that strengthens the nation with the self-conscious racial diversity that divides it by breeding arrogance and envy." • Some social conservatives also criticize the foundation for its support of organizations that promote abortion and contraception, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Alan Guttmacher Institute, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization. In popular culture See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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