Kudos! to the LA Times & the Gates Foundation

[nosmokes]

WOW! i'm impressed. it's not all that often that you see people actually react positively to constructive criticism. usually they just get all pissed and defensive. but this is the oneof the most positive results of a great piece of investigative journalism i've ever seen. it's a wondrous thing, truly. thanks to all involved. -joe

original-LATimes

Gates Foundation to reassess investments
A decision to review its holdings for their social effects could lead others to rethink their policies.
By Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer
January 11, 2007

***Thread with link to original investigative report here


In a significant change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it would review its investments to determine whether its holdings were socially responsible.

In addition to what it called a continuing review of "our approach to investments," the foundation said on its website, "we will review other strategies that can fulfill a social responsibility role, both in terms of their aspirations and in understanding the impact that they may have."

The announcement came two days after the Los Angeles Times published the second article in a two-part investigation showing that the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.

The Times found that the organization — led and funded by the chairman of Microsoft Corp. and his wife — invested hundreds of millions of dollars in companies that contribute to the problems of health, housing and social welfare that the foundation tries to solve.

In its website statement, the foundation said it would establish a procedure in which the founder and his wife would personally assess its holdings and matters of social responsibility. "We will … formalize the process," it said, "by which Bill and Melinda Gates analyze and review these issues."

Experts in socially conscious investing said the development would probably cause other foundations to rethink their endowment policies. The David & Lucille Packard Foundation and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, both among the nation's 10 largest, said Wednesday that they too were reevaluating their investments to assess social and environmental effects.

"Because people are pointing out the kinds of inconsistencies between investment behavior and mission," said Lance Lindblom, president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which has been a leader in considering social investment issues, "we may be reaching a tipping point."
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completearticle here