Bill Gates Vision 2030. In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and donated some of his Microsoft stock in 1994 to create the "William H. Gates Foundation." In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations and Gates donated stock valued at $5 billion to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was identified by the Funds for NGOs company in 2013, as the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, with
Bill Gates Sr. to William Henry Gates I or Sr. (1891–1969) and Lillian Elizabeth Rice (1891–1966); the couple had married in 1913. His paternal grandmother was German and his maternal grandmother was English, and he was apparently the "third" William Henry Gates, despite being named the second. Gates was an active member of a Boy Scout troop for several years, and earned the Eagle Scout Award in 1941. After high school he enlisted in the United States Army, changing his name to William Gates Jr. to avoid the appearance of elitism. He fought in World War II and was honorably discharged in November