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Edited on Mon Jan-28-08 06:24 PM by Levgreee
Here is a list of his philanthropic efforts, for reference
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) is the largest transparently operated<2> charitable foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates in 2000 and doubled in size by Warren Buffett in 2006. 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 in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Patty Stonesifer. It has an endowment of US$37.6 billion as of July 11, 2007.<3>
Activities
As of 2006, the foundation has an endowment of approximately US$34.6 billion. To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, it must donate at least 5% of its assets each year.<11> Thus the donations from the foundation each year would amount to over US$1.5 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
* Global Development Program
* United States Program
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 (192 nations) and is comparable to the funds given to fight infectious disease by the United States Agency for International Development.<12> The Foundation currently provides 17% (US$86 million in 2006) of the world budget for the attempted eradication of poliomyelitis (polio).<13>
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. <14> <15>
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. <16>
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. <17>
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
Financial Access Initiative
A $5 million grant allows Financial Access Initiative to do field research and answer important questions about microfinance and financial access in impoverished countries around the world.
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. <18>
Agricultural Development
Rice Research
Donated US$800,000 to the Philippine Rice Research Institute to develop rice with higher amounts of micronutrients.
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
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 investment in this effort, to which the Rockefeller foundation 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:
* CARE international
* International Rescue Committee
* Mercy Corps
* Save the Children
* World Vision
India Earthquake
The foundation made a donation of US$500,000 for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.<10>
Water, Hygiene and Sanitation
The Foundation is giving the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development US$1,200,000 over 3 years to find new, sustainable ways to make water, sanitation and hygiene services safer and more affordable.
United States Program
Under President Allan Golston, the United States Program has made grants such as the following:
U.S. Libraries
In 1997, the foundation introduced a U.S. Libraries initiative with a goal of “ensuring that if you can get to a public library, you can reach the Internet.” The foundation has given grants, installed computers and software, and provided training and technical support in partnership with public libraries nationwide.
Most recently, the foundation gave a $12.2-million grant to the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) to assist libraries on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, many of which were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Education
Carnegie Mellon University
The Foundation gifted US$20 million to the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science for a new Computer Science building which will be named the Gates Center for Computer Science. <11>
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 scholarships to high achieving minority students. <12>
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. <13>
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.
D.C. Achievers Scholarships
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced March 22, 2007 a $122 million initiative to send hundreds of the District of Columbia's poorest students to college.<19>
Washington State Achievers Scholarship
The Washington State Achievers program encourages schools to create cultures of high academic achievement while providing scholarship support to select college-bound students.
Texas High School Project<20>
Strong American Schools
On April 25th, 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined forces with the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation pledging a joint $60 million to create Strong American Schools, a nonprofit project responsible for running ED in 08, an initiative and information campaign aimed at encouraging 2008 presidential contenders to include education in their campaign policies.<21>
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.
Rainier Scholars
Donated US$1 million
Computer History Museum
Donated US$15 million to the museum in October, 2005. <22>
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