Gates Foundation
 |
|
| Abbreviation | BMGF |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2000 |
| Founders | |
| Type |
Non-operating private foundation (IRS exemption status): 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose | Healthcare, Education, Ending poverty |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, United States |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
| Method | Donations and grants |
|
Key people
|
Bill Gates, co-founder and co-chair Melinda Gates, co-founder and co-chair William H. Gates, Sr., co-chair Susan Desmond-Hellmann, CEO |
| Endowment | US$44.3 billion as of 31 December 2014[update] |
|
Employees
|
1,382 |
| Website | gatesfoundation |
|
Formerly called
|
William H. Gates Foundation (1994–1999) |
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (or the Gates Foundation, abbreviated as BMGF) is a private foundation founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It was launched in 2000 and is said to be the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, 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 Susan Desmond-Hellmann.
It had an endowment of US$44.3 billion as of 31 December 2014[update]. The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in venture philanthropy, though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations. In 2007, its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America, and Warren Buffett the first. As of May 16, 2013, Bill Gates had donated US$28 billion to the foundation.
On June 25, 2006, Warren Buffett (then the world's richest person, estimated worth of US$62 billion as of April 16, 2008) pledged to give the foundation approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares spread over multiple years through annual contributions, with the first year's donation of 500,000 shares being worth approximately US$1.5 billion. 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 Bill & Melinda 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 an additional amount equal to 5 percent of net assets. Buffett gave the foundation two years to abide by the third requirement." The Gates Foundation received 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). In July 2013, Buffet announced another donation of his company's Class B stock, this time worth $2 billion, to the Gates Foundation.
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