{"id":8604,"date":"2025-05-09T09:29:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=8604"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:29:47","slug":"bill-gates-pledges-remaining-fortune-to-gates-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=8604","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates pledges remaining fortune to Gates Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SEATTLE — <\/span>SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Bill Gates<\/a> says he will donate 99% of his remaining tech fortune to the Gates Foundation<\/a>, which will now close in 2045, earlier than previously planned. Today, that would be worth an estimated $107 billion. <\/p>\n

The pledge is among the largest philanthropic gifts ever \u2013 outpacing the historic contributions of industrialists like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie when adjusted for inflation. Only Berkshire Hathaway investor Warren Buffett’s pledge to donate his fortune<\/a> \u2014 currently estimated by Forbes at $160 billion \u2014 may be larger depending on stock market fluctuations.<\/p>\n

Gates’ donation will be delivered over time and allow the foundation to spend an additional $200 billion over the next 20 years. The foundation already has an endowment of $77 billion built from donations from Gates, Melinda French Gates<\/a> and Buffett.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of thrilling to have that much to be able to put into these causes,\u201d Gates said in an interview with The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

His announcement Thursday signals both a promise of sustained support to those causes, particularly global health<\/a> and education in the U.S.<\/a>, and an eventual end to the foundation\u2019s immense worldwide influence. Gates says spending down his fortune will help save and improve many lives now, which will have positive ripple effects well beyond the foundation’s closure. It also makes it more likely that his intentions are honored. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think 20 years is the right balance between giving as much as we can to make progress on these things and giving people a lot of notice that now this money will be gone,\u201d Gates said. <\/p>\n

In a league of its own<\/p>\n

The pledge is \u201ca welcome bit of boldness,\u201d at a time when optimism is in short supply said, Rhodri Davies, a philanthropy expert and author of the publication, \u201cPublic Good by Private Means.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis announcement seems like yet more evidence that norms in foundation philanthropy might be shifting\u201d away from a default of operating in perpetuity, he said.<\/p>\n

The Gates Foundation has long been peerless among foundations \u2014 attracting supporters and detractors but also numerous unfounded conspiracy theories. <\/p>\n

In addition to the $100 billion it has spent since its founding 25 years ago, it has directed scientific research, helped develop new technologies, and nurtured long-term partnerships with countries and companies.<\/p>\n

About 41% of the foundation\u2019s money so far has come from Warren Buffett and the rest from the fortune Gates made at Microsoft. <\/p>\n

Started by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates in 2000, the foundation plays a significant role in shaping global health policy and has carved out a special niche by partnering with companies to drive down the cost of medical treatments so low- and middle-income countries could afford them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe foundation work has been way more impactful than I expected,\u201d Gates said, calling it his second and final career.<\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s influence on global health \u2014 from the World Health Organization to research agendas \u2014 is both a measure of its success and a magnet for criticism. For years, researchers have asked why a wealthy family should have so much sway over how the world improves people\u2019s health and responds to crises.<\/p>\n

Gates said, like any private citizen, he can choose how to spend the money he earns and has decided to do everything he can to reduce childhood deaths. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs that a bad thing? It\u2019s not an important cause? People can criticize it,\u201d he said, but the foundation will stick to its global health work.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce and statehouses from Melinda French Gates\u2019 organization, Pivotal Ventures.<\/p>\n

Major ambitions for the remaining 20 years<\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s most prized metric is the drop in childhood deaths from preventable causes by almost half between 2000 and 2020, according to United Nations figures<\/a>. The foundation\u2019s CEO Mark Suzman is careful to say they do not take credit for this accomplishment. But he believes they had a \u201ccatalytic role\u201d \u2014 for example, in helping deliver vaccines to children through Gavi, the vaccine alliance they helped create.<\/p>\n

The foundation still has numerous goals \u2014 eradicating polio, controlling other deadly diseases, like malaria, and reducing malnutrition, which makes children more vulnerable to other illnesses.<\/p>\n

Gates hopes that by spending to address these issues now, wealthy donors will be free to tackle other problems later. <\/p>\n

The Gates Foundation had planned to wind down two decades after Gates’ death, meaning today\u2019s announcement significantly moves up that timetable. Gates plans to stay engaged, though at 69, he acknowledged he may not have a say.<\/p>\n

In its remaining two decades, the foundation will maintain a budget of around $9 billion a year, which represents a leveling off from its almost annual growth since 2006, when Buffett first started donating. <\/p>\n

Suzman expects the foundation will narrow its focus to top priorities. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving that time horizon and the resources just puts an even greater burden on us to say, \u2018Are you actually putting your resources, your thumb down, on what are going to be the biggest, most successful bets rather than scattering it too thinly?\u2019” Suzman said, which he acknowledged was creating uncertainty even within the foundation about what programs would continue. <\/p>\n

Gates is the only remaining founder<\/p>\n

Major changes preceded the foundation’s 25th year. <\/p>\n

In 2021, Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates divorced, and Buffett resigned as the foundation\u2019s trustee<\/a>. They recruited a new board of trustees<\/a> to help govern the foundation, and in 2024, French Gates left to continue work at her own organization. <\/p>\n

French Gates said she decided to step down partly to focus on countering the rollback of women\u2019s rights in the U.S. At the ELLE Women of Impact event<\/a> in New York in April, she said she wanted to leave the foundation at a high point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI so trusted Mark Suzman, the current CEO,” she said. \u201cWe had a board in place that I helped put in place, and I knew their values.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even as the foundation\u2019s governance stabilizes, the road ahead looks difficult. Enduring conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, global economic turmoil and cuts to foreign aid forecast fewer resources coming to global health and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest uncertainty for us is the generosity that will go into global health,\u201d Gates said. \u201cWill it continue to go down like it has the last few years or can we get it back to where it should be?\u201d <\/p>\n

Even facing these obstacles, Gates and the foundation speak, as they often do, with optimism, pointing to innovations they\u2019ve funded or ways they\u2019ve helped reduce the cost of care. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to come up with these low-cost things and tragic if we can\u2019t get them out to everyone who needs them,\u201d Gates said. \u201cSo it\u2019s going to require renewing that commitment of those who are well off to help those who are in the greatest need.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP\u2019s philanthropy coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/philanthropy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE — SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Bill Gates says he will donate 99% of his remaining tech fortune to the Gates Foundation, which will now close in 2045, earlier than previously planned. Today, that would be worth an estimated $107 billion. The pledge is among the largest philanthropic gifts ever \u2013 outpacing the historic contributions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8606,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604\/revisions\/8606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}