Last Updated on 07/16/2022 by てんしょく飯
On July 13, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates announced that he will donate $20 billion, one of the largest single donations in history, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the charity he runs with his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates. In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Gates, one of the world’s richest men, also revealed his intention to continue to make large donations and to keep his name off the list of the richest men in the world.
We’re basically accelerating all the activities we’re doing now.
The $20 billion transfer will take place this month. This is expected to boost Gates and Melinda’s combined lifetime giving to $55 billion, surpassing prominent U.S. investor Warren Buffett’s $48 billion to become the highest in history. Buffett also gives the bulk of his donations to the Gates Foundation, where he served as a board member until last year.
With the new donations, the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic organization, plans to increase its current annual funding of $6 billion by 1.5 times to $9 billion by 2026. According to Gates, the new funds will “basically accelerate all the work we are doing now.
This massive donation means more than a $3 billion annual increase in the Gates Foundation’s funding for issues such as gender equality, disease eradication, and infant mortality reduction. It is also a call to the world’s wealthiest people to do more active philanthropy during their lifetimes, rather than building up their endowments so that they can continue to give a little in their own name over the centuries.
Some people are trying to make their foundations last as long as possible, but there are things they can do now that will have a big impact.
Gates’ new donation also follows the “give while you live” philosophy embodied by Chuck Feeney, 91, founder of Duty Free Shoppers, and others. Feeney, once a member of the Forbes 400, has donated more than $8 billion to date, reducing his holdings to near nothing.
Gates also hopes to be removed from Forbes’ list during his lifetime. I’m going to make two more donations of this magnitude,” he said, “and then I’m going to disappear from a prominent place on the list. In my case, it will take a while before I can get off the list completely, but I know exactly where I need to go.
With this donation, Gates has dropped one spot on the ranking list, to 5th place. His estimated net worth, excluding his foundation, is approximately $102 billion.
Regarding his relationship with Melinda, Gates recalled that “we were able to work together constructively at the foundation even during the difficult period of the divorce,” and that “Melinda and I agree very much on foundation matters, and she has always surprised me.
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