The job of spending all the money – The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Technology billionaire Bill Gates is obviously a man born to dominate.

The business magnate, who topped the Forbes list of the world’s richest people for more than a decade, has moved on from Microsoft to become, along with his wife Melinda, one of the biggest players in the world of giving (otherwise known as philanthropy).

Gates took his first steps in large-scale altruism in the early 1990s around the time he first hit the top of the Forbes list.

Some commentators have stated that he took his inspiration from the philanthropic acts of Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller, both of whom had made massive fortunes but also gave away huge portions of their wealth for the betterment of society as a whole.

Gates stuck to what he knew for some of his initial projects which included giving away free computer software and wiring up libraries to provide free computer access for the underprivileged, moves that had critics accusing him of cynically trying to boost his company’s market share.

Undaunted, the Gates family stepped up their commitment in 1999.

They combined several of their existing foundations into one mega organisation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft to concentrate on the new entity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s focus is on working “to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.”

Internationally the foundation works on improving healthcare and alleviating poverty while in the USA, they are trying to give the people with the fewest opportunities access to resources to improve their lives.

The foundation adheres to 15 guiding principles which outline the way in which it works.

These include that the foundation is driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family, that they are “funders and shapers” meaning they give money to other organisations rather then implementing their own programmes and that their priority is issues that have been neglected by governments and international organisations.

There’s no suggestion of this being some kind of tax dodge or PR window dressing either.

Experts say while many wealthy families set up foundations purely to shelter money, the Gates Foundation has had clear goals and performance measures from the beginning as well as the hands-on participation of both Bill and Melinda Gates.

Given Bill Gates’ immense wealth, the foundation always had plenty of money to play around with.

But in 2006 its profile and capital was raised even further, when Warren Buffet, who was then the world’s richest person, pledged shares valued at $30 billion, making it the largest private foundation in the world.

Warren Buffet is now a trustee of the foundation along with Bill and Melinda Gates.

According to recent figures, the foundation gives away a minimum of $1.5 billion dollars a year. An interesting fact is that in contrast to most organisations of its type it has a finite life.

Bill and Melinda have stipulated that all the resources of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust (which manages all the assets and provides the funds the foundation gives out) must be spent within 50 years of the death of the last trustee and the foundation closed down.

The foundation says this move was made to keep the focus on doing “as much as possible as soon as possible.”

Of course no organisation in charge of billions of dollars ever gets a free pass on anything, no matter how good their intentions are.

There has been criticism of the foundation’s investment strategy: ‘to get the maximum return possible.’ In 2007 the LA Times drew attention to the fact that the foundation was investing in companies with suspect business practices, many of which were in fact contributing to some of the problems the foundation was trying to stamp out.

The foundation however is sticking to its strategy, saying it will try and encourage change from within, using its voting rights to influence company policies.

The LA Times series also drew attention to the fact that qualified medical staff were being increasingly attracted to the areas where the Gates Foundation funds were being targeted, causing shortages in other areas.

Others have accused them of not consulting with the right people with long-term experience in the areas they’re working in.

The Gates Foundation has shown themselves to be open to what people have to say and to acting on it, with Melinda Gates saying in an interview with National Public Radio that they ”want good criticism and good feedback so that we can do better as an organisation.”

Ultimately, it seems the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has the wherewithal to do a lot of good on a global scale, and its wealth will potentially benefit millions.

By Jo Blick

Photo – Bill and Melinda Gates