bill & melinda gates foundation bill & melinda gates foundation the bill & melinda gates foundation (bmgf), a merging of the william h. gates foundation and the gates learning foundation, is an american private foundation founded by bill gates and melinda french gates. based in seattle, washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported as of 2020 to be the second largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $49.8 billion in assets. on his 43rd birthday, bill gates gave the foundation $1 billion. the primary stated goals of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the u.s. key individuals of the foundation include bill gates, melinda french gates, warren buffett, chief executive officer mark suzman, and michael larson. bill & melinda gates foundationthe bill & melinda gates foundation headquarters in 2022abbreviationbmgfformation2000 (2000)foundersbill gatesmelinda french gatestypenon-operating private foundationlegal status501(c)(3) organizationpurposehealthcare, education, fighting povertyheadquartersseattle, washington, u.s.coordinates47°37′25″n 122°20′44″warea served worldwidemethoddonations, grantskey peoplebill gates (co-founder)melinda french gates (co-chair)mark suzman (ceo)endowment$49.8 billion (2019)employees 1,736 (2023)websitewww.gatesfoundation.orgformerly calledwilliam h. gates foundation, gates learning foundation this article is part of a series about bill gates awards and honors philanthropy political positions public image residence companies traf-o-data microsoft (criticism) ben cascade investment terrapower gates ventures charitable organizations bill & melinda gates foundation match for africa the giving pledge oer project breakthrough energy mission innovation writings "an open letter to hobbyists" the road ahead business @ the speed of thought how to avoid a climate disaster how to prevent the next pandemic related bill gates' flower fly codex leicester lost on the grand banks history of microsoft timeline of microsoft the bmgf had an endowment of approximately $50 billion as of december 31, 2020. 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 the u.s., behind warren buffett. as of 2018, bill gates and melinda french gates had donated around $36 billion to the foundation. 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. history headquarters complex in seattle as seen from the space needle in 1994, the foundation was formed as the william h. gates foundation. in the mid-2000s, the foundation's funding grew substantially to $2 billion. in may 2002, the foundation purchased stocks in pharmaceutical companies johnson & johnson, merck, and pfizer. on june 15, 2006, gates announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role with microsoft, effective july 31, 2008, to allow him to devote more time to working with the foundation. the first ceo of the foundation, until she stepped down in 2008, was patty stonesifer. in 2005, bill gates and melinda french gates, along with the irish rock musician bono, were named by time as persons of the year 2005 for their outstanding charitable work. in the case of the gates, the work referenced was that of bmgf. on 12 may 2008 it was announced that jeff raikes would replace stonesifer as the ceo of the bmgf. in april 2010, gates was invited to visit and speak at the massachusetts institute of technology where he urged the students to take on the hard problems of the world. he also explained the nature and philosophy of his philanthropic endeavours. in 2010, the foundation's founders started the commission on education of health professionals for the 21st century, entitled "transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world." a 2011 survey of grantees found that many believed the foundation did not make its goals and strategies clear and sometimes did not understand those of the grantees; that the foundation's decision – and grantmaking procedures were too opaque; and that its communications could be more consistent and responsive. the foundation's response was to improve the clarity of its explanations, make "orientation calls" to grantees upon awarding grants, tell grantees who their foundation contact is, give timely feedback when they receive a grantee report, and establish a way for grantees to provide anonymous or attributed feedback to the foundation. the foundation also launched a podcast series. in october 2013, the bmgf announced that it would join the international aid transparency initiative. in december 2013 susan desmond-hellmann, president of product development for genentech before its acquisition by roche pharmaceuticals, was announced as bmgf's next ceo. she replaced jeff raikes on 1 may 2014. in february 2014 hillary clinton launched a partnership between the foundation and the clinton foundation to gather and study data on the progress of women and girls around the world since the 1995 united nations fourth world conference on women in beijing. this is called "no ceilings: the full participation project". in october 2019, the bmgf partnered with the world economic forum to host the tabletop exercise called event 201 in new york city. in february 2020, bmgf ceo desmond-hellmann was replaced "for health and family reasons" by mark suzman. as early as 2012, there were reports afoot that the bmgf was acting as a fund aggregator for wealthy donors: the name recognition associated with bmgf caused more money to be placed than an anonymous control. this was particularly useful during the covid-19 pandemic because the bmgf already knew which organizations were working in the field and able to receive funds. when former president trump threatened to defund the who in summer 2020 over concerns that it was too "deferential" to the chinese communist party, because the bmgf constituted at that time the second-ranked contributor to the who, concerns were raised in the charity and academic sector that the bmgf might conceivably bias the who in the pursuit of its ideology. in the most timely accounting period, the bmgf provided 45% of the who's ngo funds, or in other words 12% of the total operating expenditure of the who. it was revealed after the fact that the bmgf had contributed us$1.553 billion to the gavi over the five years 2016 to 2020. the bmgf was the number two ranked contributor. at the global vaccine summit in june 2020, the bmgf pledged $1.6 billion (or just under 20% of the total) for the subsequent five years. in may 2022, the gates foundation announced the commitment of $125 million to aid in ending the acute phase of the covid-19 pandemic and to aid in preparing for future pandemics. in total since the start of the covid-19 pandemic the gates foundation has committed more than $2 billion to covid-19 response efforts. warren buffett donations on june 25, 2006, warren buffett pledged to give the foundation approximately 10 million berkshire hathaway class b shares (then valued at $3,071 each, before a 50–1 stock split in 2010) spread over multiple years through annual contributions, with the first year's donation of 500,000 shares being worth approximately $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. bloomberg news noted, "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 2018, buffet announced another donation of his company's class b stock, this time worth $2 billion, to the gates foundation. lifespan in october 2006, the bill & melinda gates foundation was split into two entities: the bill & melinda gates foundation trust, which manages the endowment assets and the bill & melinda gates foundation, which "... conducts all operations and grantmaking work, and it is the entity from which all grants are made". also announced was the decision to spend all of the foundation's resources within 50 years after bill's and melinda's deaths. this was later lowered to within 20 years of their death. this would close the bill & melinda gates foundation trust and effectively end the bill & melinda gates foundation. in the 2006 announcement, it was reiterated that warren buffett "... has stipulated that the proceeds from the berkshire hathaway shares he still owns at death are to be used for philanthropic purposes within 10 years after his estate has been settled". the plan to close the foundation trust is in contrast to most large charitable foundations that have no set closure date. this is intended to lower administrative costs over the years of the foundation trust's life and ensure that the foundation trust does not fall into a situation where the vast majority of its expenditures are on administrative costs, including salaries, with only token amounts contributed to charitable causes. in july 2021, the foundation agreed on a back-up plan in the event that its co-chairs cannot work together due to their recent divorce. the deal gives bill and melinda a two-year trial, after which ms. gates could resign from the organization as well as receiving personal resources from her ex-husband for her own charity work. activities program areas and grant database to maintain its status as a charitable foundation, the bill & melinda gates foundation must donate funds equal to at least five percent of its assets each year. as of april 2014, the foundation is organized into four program areas under chief executive officer susan desmond-hellmann, who "sets strategic priorities, monitors results, and facilitates relationships with key partners": global development division global health division united states division global policy & advocacy division global growth & opportunity division the foundation maintains an online database of grants. open access policy life expectancy in 1800, 1950, and 2015 – visualization by our world in data in november 2014, the gates foundation announced that they were adopting an open access (oa) policy for publications and data, "to enable the unrestricted access and reuse of all peer-reviewed published research funded by the foundation, including any underlying data sets". this move has been widely applauded by those who are working in the area of capacity building and knowledge sharing. its terms have been called the most stringent among similar oa policies. as of january 1, 2015, their open access policy is effective for all new agreements. in march 2017, it was confirmed that the open access policy, gates open research, would be based on the same initiative launched in 2016 by wellcome trust in their wellcome open research policy launched in partnership with f1000 research. the gates foundation supported our world in data, one of the world's largest open-access publications. bill gates called the publication his "favorite website". our world in data is a scientific online publication, based at the university of oxford, that studies how to make progress against large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, and inequality. the mission of our world in data is to present "research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems". funds for grants in developing countries the following table lists the bmgf's committed funding as recorded in their international aid transparency initiative (iati) publications. the bmgf announced in october 2013 that it would join the iati. the iati publications only include a subset of bmgf grants (mainly excluding grants to developed countries), and contain few grants before 2009 (which are entirely excluded from the table). the bmgf states on the iati registry site that "reporting starts from 2009 and excludes grants related to our us programs and grants that if published could harm our employees, grantees, partners, or the beneficiaries of our work". committed funding ($ millions) dac 5 digit sector2009201020112012201320142015sum infectious disease control 256.9 720.3 462.8 528.7 1248.3 1271.8 1097.5 5586.4 malaria control 324.5 101.7 133.6 75.5 302.4 377.6 140.8 1456.1 std