Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, also known as the Gates Foundation, is a tax-exempt private foundation founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. Launched in 2000, The Foundation aims to improve health and alleviate extreme poverty; in America, it focuses on education.[1]

The Foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is among the largest and wealthiest private foundations in the world,[2][3] holding ~$48bn in assets.[4] It is controlled by its three trustees: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William Gates Snr. and Chief Executive Officer Mark Suzman.[5]

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is the Foundation’s investment arm, managing the endowment assets.[6]

In May.2020, it bought another ~200,000 shares of Serco Group plc, taking its holding to ~£5.3m, a tiny fraction of the Foundation’s total assets of about $48bn.

The Foundation is funded by grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. The Foundation had an endowment of $44.3bn as of Dec.2014.[3] 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,[6] though the Foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations.[7] In 2007, its founders were ranked as the 2nd most generous philanthropists in America, with Warren Buffett coming first.[8] As of May.2013, Bill Gates had donated $28bn to the Foundation.[1][9] Since its founding, the Foundation has endowed and supported a broad range of social, health, and education developments including the establishment of the Gates Cambridge Scholarships at Cambridge University.

The primary role of the Trust is to manage the investment assets and fund the Foundation, as necessary, to achieve the Foundation’s charitable goals.


Transparency

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation became an IATI member in 2013 and published its first IATI data in Mar.2014. PWYF page
    2018: Fair 47.3%   2016: Fair   2014: Fair   2013: Very Poor 



Articles

  • Dec.01.2018: Malaria trial pays Africans to be bitten. Villagers in the west African state of Burkina Faso will be paid to be bitten by genetically modified mosquitoes, in an attempt to end malaria. By monitoring the insects’ behaviour, researchers funded by $70m from the Foundation hope to move closer to eradicating the disease. Under the scheme, 10,000 specially bred mosquitoes are to be released in the remote village of Bana. In theory, the genetic alteration will eventually result in a wild mosquito population dominated by males, which will then die out. Opponents cite the possibility of unforeseen consequences to the food chain. Mosquitoes pollinate flowers and are important food sources for fish, frogs, birds and bats. A similar experiment in which millions of GM mosquitoes were released at the British Overseas Territory of Grand Cayman over the past 2 years was abandoned after researchers said that it was not producing the results they were looking for. Problems arose as the British bio-tech company Oxitec engineered insects whose offspring were unable to grow into adulthood, causing the introduced population to crash. Plans to carry out testing of GM insects in the Florida Keys stalled because of public opposition. Jane Flanagan, The Times.

References

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