What is Gates and Buffett's charitable foundation really needed for? Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation

...and on Tuesday the philanthropist announced he was launching a new campaign to fight malaria. Readers of his blog “Mosquito Wars”, by registering and taking part in the online quiz, become participants in a large-scale charity event. On their behalf, the Gates Foundation sends anti-malaria nets to Mozambique and other parts of Asia and Africa, where the disease, transmitted by insect bites, kills hundreds of thousands of people every year. Thanks to philanthropic help from the Gates Foundation and other organizations, the number of deaths from malaria has been halved since 2000, but still remains huge: from 870 thousand 17 years ago to 429 thousand last year. In his blog, Bill Gates writes, “I don’t like to say ‘miracle,’ but the figure (of the death rate) really does sound like a miracle.”

The miracle is based on another figure: funding for the fight against malaria increased by 1000% in 15 years, from 2000 to 2015. Since 1994, Bill and Melinda Gates have donated a total of $35 billion in stocks and shares. cash to develop health care in the world's poorest countries and to fight poverty. This is a whole philosophy. Gates announced that he would not leave the majority of his capital to his heirs; they themselves must achieve success in life.

In 2010, he and billionaire Warren Buffett launched the philanthropic campaign The Giving Pledge, calling on the world's richest people to give a portion of their money to charity. George Lucas and Mark Zuckerberg took part in the campaign. Those who signed the “oath” (today about 170 people, including 14 billionaires) pledged to transfer more than half of their wealth to charitable needs. It is curious that Gates’ competitor, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who at the end of July this year topped the list of the richest people on the planet (this lasted only a day, then Gates was again recognized as the “first rich man”), is not yet participating in this initiative.

“The King of Philanthropy,” as Forbes calls him, Gates remains at the top of the list, despite the fact that in total he transferred over 700 million shares of Microsoft worth more than $40 billion to the fund. This money was transferred to non-profit projects in one hundred countries around the world.

In addition to malaria, the foundation has long declared war on polio, with the goal of completely defeating this disease in 2019. The next goals of the Gates Foundation are victory over tuberculosis and HIV infection.

The Gates Foundation's largest partner, Warren Buffett (No. 2 on the Forbes list), has pledged to donate about $30 billion in shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which is called "the most powerful investment company in the world," to charitable causes over 10 years. In an open letter to their investor in February of this year, Bill and Melinda Gates reported on their investment:

— since 1990, thanks to vaccines, the lives of 122 million children have been saved, child mortality has been steadily declining, and 86% of children already receive the necessary medical vaccinations;

- over the past 13 years, 300 million women in the poorest countries have received modern means contraception and with them - the opportunity to plan childbearing.

$1 spent on childhood immunization generates $44 in economic benefit, the Gateses say.

However, there are other statistics: last year, 1 million children died on their birthday, and more than 2.5 million did not live even one month. Almost half of child deaths - 45% - are from hunger.

This means that the “philanthropic king” Gates, the “best investor in the world” Buffett and others like them have a lot of work ahead of them to improve the world around them.

The tip of the iceberg

Once in America, you quickly become convinced that the ideological staples hammered in from school about the ruthless capitalist world, where “man is a wolf to man,” do not coincide with reality. America is a country where one of the main principles of society is helping one’s neighbor, charity, and creating good. This is both honorable and... profitable.

Every day, charities, non-profit foundations, religious and local communities collect funds, things, food for the poor and homeless, for police officers and firefighters, for the development of schools, shelters and churches.

Individual record donations from billionaires: Gates, Buffett, etc. - The tip of the iceberg. In 2015, according to Giving USA, Americans donated $373 billion to charity—more than one billion a day. 71% (264.5 billion) were contributions from citizens, 16% were collected by public funds, 9% (31.7 billion) were received in the form of gift wills, and only 5% (18 billion) were transferred to corporations.

Almost a third of donations - 32% - went to the needs of the church, 15% - to education, 12% - to social services helping the elderly, the poor, single mothers, etc. It works like this: Americans write checks (usually no more than: 5-20 dollars) to various funds and public organizations, and they, in turn, redirect money to the needs of science, culture, and art.

The state encourages philanthropists and patrons of the arts in every possible way. When filing a tax return, the law allows you to deduct amounts given to charity. All categories of goods have their own maximum that can be deducted from taxes. For example, you can deduct no more than $500 for returned clothing. An expert is usually brought in to evaluate real estate and other unique goods.

You can donate money, clothes, furniture, household appliances, houses and land, cars and motorcycles, boats and yachts, jewelry, securities and shares, patents, art.

The most famous charitable private foundations in America are “Feed the Children” (provides assistance with food and goods in all 50 US states and 23 countries), “Music to Relief Victims of Natural Disasters” (founded by the musicians of the band Linkin Park), “Partners in Health” ( treatment for serious diseases - AIDS and tuberculosis for residents of Peru, Rwanda, Haiti, Guatemala, Mexico, etc.).

America's "golden interest" faces a dilemma: give the money to the government in the form of taxes or spend it instead charity event, which will arouse the interest of the press, the gratitude of people and will contribute to business development. According to British sociologist Lynsey McGoy, author of There Are No Free Gifts: The Gates Foundation and the Cost of Philanthropy, all the major philanthropists - Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford - gave money "for reasons of selfishness." Their charity, the British author is convinced, is nothing more than a well-thought-out PR strategy in order to divert public attention from the monopolistic nature of their business. Gates, according to McGoy, falls into the list of monopolists, and his impressive history of fighting poverty and disease does not impress the author of the book. As well as the Occupy Wall Street movement, which opposes any large corporations.

Perhaps this is why many donate secretly. 4 years ago under New Year lucky waiters in the center of New York, Manhattan. An unknown donor left tips ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 when signing up for cash receipt: "tip for Jesus." About fifty waiters received their “checks of happiness.”

The University of Cincinnati (Ohio) received $3 million in scholarships for its most talented students through an anonymous donation.

Ill-wishers predict imminent destructive shocks for America - economic, political and even seismological. “Soon your whole America will be kirdyk,” as the famous movie character said. But for now, the amounts given to charity are steadily growing, and the queues of families wanting to take in foreign orphans (those here have long been sorted out) are multiplying. The Americans are doing fine with their clamps.

The well-known charitable foundation of Bill Gates and his wife Melinda was until recently considered the largest in the world (a few years ago it was surpassed in terms of assets by the Stichting INGKA foundation from the founder of IKEA). But the merits of the foundation are not only in the large amounts of investment in charity (which, by the way, amounted to $28 billion), but in the fact that thanks to the efforts of the Gates family, humanity has a chance to eradicate terrible diseases.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or how charity can change the system

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was founded in 1994, and until 1999 was named after William Gates (in honor of the father of the computer genius). The organization's central office is located in Seattle, America. Currently, among the founders of the fund are Bill Gates, his father and wife, as well as billionaire Warren Buffett, who donated $37 billion to the organization.

Philanthropist Bill Gates created his foundation to improve the living conditions of mankind through the introduction of advanced technologies in medicine, as well as the development of education. The organization spends up to $2 billion annually on health programs (mostly aimed at people in Africa), and also funds scholarship programs

In terms of philanthropy, Bill Gates became famous as the founder of the catalytic philanthropy model, which places responsibility for the health and lives of a part of the population with low incomes on large businessmen. According to him, the development of many innovations in the healthcare sector has been hampered for years only because of one factor - they do not generate income. Gates was able to create a system in which the poor are provided with effective, cheap medicines, and pharmaceutical corporations receive at least minimal income from this.

Bill Gates Charitable Foundation: how it all began

In 1993, Bill and Melinda went on a safari in Africa on the eve of their wedding. Their imagination painted pictures of wild animals walking around the endless beautiful savannah. But in reality I had to see what real poverty is. Bill’s wife recalls that time: “We went to look at the animals, but we caught ourselves thinking that we were tormented by the question: why is this pregnant woman forced to carry firewood on her head and a small child on her back?”

Gates understood that the problem of society was very global: a mixture of unemployment, low education, constant unrest, superimposed on the high population density of African states.

After analyzing the problem, Bill Gates began his philanthropy by funding birth control programs. He quite rightly assessed that a natural decrease in the population of countries would free up resources and improve living standards. It did not occur to him then to take care of the treatment of African children suffering from epidemics: they still had a high risk of dying from hunger or constant fighting.

However, having managed to spend several million, Gates realized: high birth rates and overpopulation are a consequence of the fact that parents are not confident in the survival of one or two children. Thus began the history of the foundation, which made a huge contribution to protecting the health of African children.

Vaccinations that saved lives

Like many of his predecessors, Bill Gates could lead in the standard way: fund several African hospitals where children are treated. But that’s why he’s a genius, to approach the problem globally. And Gates finds the most effective method mass disease control - vaccines.

The philanthropist donated the first 100 million dollars to the UN for programs to provide children with existing drugs. But Bill Gates invested billions in changing the healthcare system - and he succeeded. The generosity of the patron made it possible to invent and begin planned production of vaccinations against malaria and meningitis. Moreover, the drugs were promptly delivered to the African continent thanks to the created logistics chain - the so-called “cold chain”.

How Gates “broke” the healthcare system

The main obstacle to the implementation of the programs was... business. Pharmaceutical companies had nothing against vaccinating poor children in Africa - but they wanted to make a profit from the complex and expensive production of vaccines.

To satisfy all parties, Gates, together with Unicef, the UN, the World Bank, manufacturers and humanitarian organizations, created the GAVI Alliance, a global alliance for vaccination and immunization, personally investing $2.5 billion in it. Now developing countries pay for vaccinations, China and India produce vaccines, and the Gates Foundation provides additional funding for the stable operation of the system.

These measures made it possible to reduce the cost of basic vaccines (whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria) by 40%, and hepatitis B by 68% over 7 years. During this time, it was possible to save 3.5 million people from hepatitis, 1.2 million people from measles, 474 thousand people from whooping cough, and 30 thousand people from polio.

Melinda, her husband’s faithful assistant, shares her impressions: “I saw mothers carrying their children, walking tens of kilometers to the nearest vaccination center. Some of them walked for 8 hours to save their babies from illness.” Gates' merit lies precisely in saturating the market with cheap, high-quality vaccines and organizing their rapid delivery - whereas previously effective medicines appeared on the African continent in sufficient quantities only 15 years after their invention. Thus, the Gates family made an invaluable contribution to the world.

Philanthropist Bill Gates himself does not stop - according to him, he will calm down when he can completely eradicate polio and minimize the incidence of malaria, which kills 800 thousand people every year.

The only one fighting Ebola

Africa “gave” the world another deadly virus, for which there is still no cure - Ebola. Not a single major pharmaceutical corporation has invested a single cent into creating a vaccine or drug against the deadly, rapidly spreading virus. The reason is still the same - as long as the outbreak is located in impoverished Africa, it is not profitable to produce medicines.

And again, Bill Gates's charitable foundation intervened in the situation, allocating $50 million to fight the virus outbreak in West Africa. The money was transferred to the UN and specialized international organizations. Progressive humanity hopes that this large donation will help stop the disease, which has already claimed the lives of more than 2 thousand people (as of September 5, 2014).

Charitable organizations and private foundations help those in need not only financially, but also with their reputation. Using their name, private philanthropists attract the attention of politicians, the public or other philanthropists to certain problems. What are the problems? famous personalities consider the most important, and in what areas do they spend their billions?

Examples of philanthropy among billionaires:

Co-founder of Microsoft, and also the richest man in the United States, Bill Gates spares no money for charity. Before founding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the billionaire was not particularly public about what he spent his money on. But now everyone understands that the example of the Gates family should be followed by all the rich people of the world: they decide the most important social problems peace.

Their foundation has been operating since 1994, and its main goal is to support and improve the healthcare system, as well as fight hunger in third world countries. Gates' billions are spent on developing programs to treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Under the patronage of this foundation, children are immunized and vaccinated in Africa and India. The foundation's priority in the United States is improving the education system.

Official website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) - gatesfoundation.org.

Warren Buffett's Charity: donated $37 billion

The world's most famous investor in 2010 became the most generous philanthropist in US history, donating $37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This was enough to become a board member of the Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett continues to transfer large amounts of money to fund accounts. The philanthropist calls on US billionaires to follow his example and bequeath at least 50% of their wealth to charity. Buffett himself bequeathed 99% of his fortune to the Gates Foundation.

Bono's charity: holds charity concerts, fights poverty in Africa

The U2 frontman has become one of the most influential people in the world thanks to his charitable work. The musician constantly organizes charity concerts, using his name and image to fight poverty in African countries. Bono actively contributed to the reduction external debt in a number of third world countries and is the founder of the One charity organization, which accepts donations from ordinary Americans and representatives of show business. Bono has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and was officially awarded a knighthood by the Queen of Great Britain.

Charity of Pierre Omidyar: eBay founder fights human trafficking

Founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, spends a significant portion of its money to combat human trafficking. He came to this decision after witnessing the hard labor of 12-13 year olds in Nepal. No matter how crazy it may sound in the 21st century, 90% of all workers in the brick industry in Nepal are slaves. They are unable to repay the debt to their reseller owners, so they are forced to lead a miserable existence in shacks.

According to the UN, annual income from human trafficking is $30 billion. Omidyar is the founder of Humanity United, which supports 85 anti-slavery causes. non-profit organizations in five countries. Throughout his time, Pierre has donated more than $115 million to charity. He actively uses his connections and name to develop his business and give freedom to slaves.

Charity of Dmitry Zimin: supports talented people

Closes our selection “Examples of Charity Among Billionaires” Dmitry Zimin. In addition to founding the VimpelCom company, the Russian entrepreneur also established the Dynasty charitable foundation, which comprehensively supports and develops fundamental sciences. The Foundation searches for and supports talented people, develops scientific education for gifted children and increases interest in science in society. The foundation helps young scientists and provides them with everything they need for successful work.

Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation. Bill melinda gates foundation


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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 1994, maintains a leading position in the world.

Among the leaders is also Stichting INGKA, the largest charitable foundation in terms of assets, estimated at $36 billion.

Founder – Ingvar Feodor Kamprad – Ingvar Feodor Kamprad – founder of IKEA.

The activities of the largest fund are aimed at improving the situation of children around the world: fighting hunger, lack of education and child labor. The Foundation is also a powerful donor for hundreds of charitable organizations, actively cooperates with UNICEF, the international organization “Save the Children”, which, however, received an ambiguous assessment in society and with a number of others.

Cooperation with the UN Children's Fund. One of the charity events.

The largest donation in the world...

One of the board members of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett, an American billionaire, entrepreneur and perhaps the world's largest investor, made the largest donation in US history worth $37 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Buffett and Gates urged American billionaires in 2010 to bequeath at least half of their wealth to charity. It's about about The Giving Pledge, “an attempt to encourage the wealthiest individuals and their families to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.” The effort was a success: by February 2013, 105 billionaires had joined the Giving Pledge and pledged to give at least 50% of their wealth to charitable causes.

Warren Edward Buffett bequeathed 99% of his wealth to charity.

The Bill and Melinda Foundation allocates funds to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in poor countries, as well as to develop education in the United States and computerize public libraries.

Vladimir Potanin was the first Russian entrepreneur to join the initiative of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

The Wellcome Trust is the world's second largest charity in terms of budget and is the most influential charity in England.


The third largest philanthropic foundation in the world is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a non-profit medical research organization staffed by leading scientists and researchers working at the cutting edge of science.

In Germany, the largest charitable organization, Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, was founded by the German industrialist and inventor Robert Bosch in 1921. Bosch was a member of the public Union of “Knights of Labor” (USA), the main objective which was - improving the situation of workers. Donation – 1 million German marks The Technical High School of Stuttgart in 1910 marked his entry into the ranks of philanthropists.

An important milestone in the foundation's philanthropic activities was the construction of the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart. Bosch opened the hospital personally. Decades later it was modernized by Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH.

Robert Bosch 1861-1942. During the First World War, Bosch, giving up profits on arms supplies, donated millions to charity.

In his will, he indicated that dividends from shares should be used for charitable purposes. Which was done.

The Fund's contribution to the share capital of Robert Bosch GmbH of 1,200 million euros is 92 percent.

And in 1980, donations were directed, among other programs, to the construction of the Institute of the History of Medicine - this is a continuation of the will of Bosch, who invested heavily in the development of homeopathy.

Bosh's heirs successfully continue his charitable activities.

Charitable organizations and private foundations help those in need not only financially, but also with their reputation. Using their name, private philanthropists attract the attention of politicians, the public or other philanthropists to certain problems. What problems do famous people consider the most important, and in what areas do they spend their billions?

Examples of philanthropy among billionaires:

Bill and Melinda Gates

Co-founder of Microsoft, and also the richest man in the United States, Bill Gates spares no money for charity. Before founding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the billionaire was not particularly public about what he spent his money on. But now everyone understands that the example of the Gates family should be followed by all the rich people of the world: they solve the most important social problems of the world.

Their foundation has been operating since 1994, and its main goal is to support and improve the healthcare system, as well as fight hunger in third world countries. Gates' billions are spent on developing programs to treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Under the patronage of this foundation, children are immunized and vaccinated in Africa and India. The foundation's priority in the United States is improving the education system.

Official website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) - .

Warren Buffett

: donated $37 billion

The world's most famous investor in 2010 became the most generous philanthropist in US history, donating $37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This was enough to become a board member of the Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett continues to transfer large amounts of money to fund accounts. The philanthropist calls on US billionaires to follow his example and bequeath at least 50% of their wealth to charity. Buffett himself bequeathed 99% of his fortune to the Gates Foundation.

Bono

: holds charity concerts, fights poverty in Africa

The U2 frontman has become one of the most influential people in the world thanks to his charitable work. The musician constantly organizes charity concerts, using his name and image to fight poverty in African countries. Bono actively contributed to the reduction of external debt in a number of third world countries and is the founder of the One charity organization, which accepts donations from ordinary Americans and representatives of show business. Bono has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and was officially awarded a knighthood by the Queen of Great Britain.

Pierre Omidyar

: eBay founder fights human trafficking

Founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, spends a significant portion of its money to combat human trafficking. He came to this decision after witnessing the hard labor of 12-13 year olds in Nepal. No matter how crazy it may sound in the 21st century, 90% of all workers in the brick industry in Nepal are slaves. They are unable to repay the debt to their reseller owners, so they are forced to lead a miserable existence in shacks.

According to the UN, the annual income from human trafficking is $30 billion. Omidyar is the founder of Humanity United, which supports 85 anti-slavery non-profit organizations in five countries. Throughout his time, Pierre has donated more than $115 million to charity. He actively uses his connections and name to develop his business and give freedom to slaves.

Dmitry Zimin

: supports talented people

Closes our selection “Examples of Charity Among Billionaires” Dmitry Zimin. In addition to founding the VimpelCom company, the Russian entrepreneur also established the Dynasty charitable foundation, which comprehensively supports and develops fundamental sciences. The Foundation searches for and supports talented people, develops scientific education for gifted children and increases interest in science in society. The foundation helps young scientists and provides them with everything they need for successful work.

Billionaire and founder of Microsoft, 61-year-old Bill Gates, made the largest donation in the last 17 years - he gave 64 million shares of the company with a total value of $4.6 billion, reports Bloomberg. This amount is 5% of his general condition and 38% of his stake in Microsoft.

The donation was recorded on June 6, but the recipient remained unknown. Gates himself and Microsoft have not yet commented on the purpose of the payment.

Typically, Bill and his wife Melinda donate money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which manages their philanthropic activities.

Largest contribution since the last century

Bloomberg notes that the last time Bill Gates's generosity reached a similar scale was in 1999 and 2000, when the billionaire donated $16 billion and $5.1 billion, respectively, to charity.

Since 1994, Bill and Melinda Gates have donated a total of $35 billion in stock and cash. In 2010, Gates and billionaire Warren Buffett created the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic campaign that motivated the world's richest people to give a portion of their money to charity. George Lucas, Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir Potanin and other businessmen are taking part in the campaign.

In total, Bill Gates transferred over 700 million Microsoft shares to the fund, which would be equivalent to $50 billion today.

Despite large sums donations, Bill Gates still remains richest man on Earth, whose fortune is estimated at $89.8 billion. The founder of Amazon Inc. is breathing down his neck. Jeff Bezos with a capital of $88.7 billion. Bezos managed to occupy the podium for some time, but this did not last long.

Lost even on Instagram

The fact that Jeff Bezos became the richest man in the world became known at the end of July 2017 - Amazon shares jumped by 20% in one day, as a result of which Bezos's fortune increased by $1.5 billion and allowed him to overtake Gates.

Amazon shares rose in price in anticipation of the publication of the company's quarterly reports, which, unfortunately, did not meet investors' expectations. The company's net profit fell 77%, causing Amazon shares to fall again.

This allowed Bill Gates to regain his status as the world's richest businessman a day after Bezos' triumph.

Tellingly, three days ago Bill Gates started himself an Instagram account - there he published the first photo from his charity trip to Tanzania. In July, Bezos did the same - at the moment, the tycoon already has five publications, including a video from the plant of his space company Blue Origin. Apparently, Gates decided to keep up with his pursuer and competitor.

True, even on Instagram, Gates is still ahead of Bezos - 206 thousand subscribers versus 32 thousand.

Gates is trending

Bill Gates is also known for carefully following Internet trends. The Microsoft founder is a regular participant in the Secret Santa program on the Reddit forum. The point of this game is that users submit applications for participation, and then randomly receive the address of the person to whom they should send a gift. In turn, someone should give them a surprise in return.

Every year, Gates takes part in Secret Santa, and the lucky recipient of a gift from the philanthropist is sure to share his story with other Reddit users.

Bill Gates typically takes a holistic approach and first studies a person's profile to find out what kind of gifts they would like.

In 2016, the lot fell on a girl gamer from the USA with the nickname Aerrix. She received not one, but several gifts from the billionaire - an Xbox One console, stylized as computer game Minecraft, DVDs with games and movies, gloves for the recipient and her dog, a blanket with The Legend of Zelda characters, a cookbook and much more.

A year earlier, user NayaTheNinja received a gift from Gates - after learning that she worked as a volunteer in Zambia, the billionaire made a large donation on her behalf to a fund to fight malaria.