Bill Gates has announced what is already supposed to be one of the largest donations in history. The tycoon and philanthropist has reiterated his plans to donate his entire fortune during his lifetime, starting by transferring $20 billion from his personal assets to the foundation he maintains together with his ex-wife. A dowry that, in parallel, will make him individually leave the list of the richest men in the world.
“The great crises of our time require us all to do more,” Gates said of that new record donation. “I hope that by giving more, we can and help fulfill the foundation’s vision of giving every person the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life.”
“Looking into the future, my plan is to donate all my wealth to the foundation, leaving aside what I spend on myself and my family,” Bill Gates said.
This is in addition to an annual donation of 3.1 billion dollars recently announced by billionaire investor Warren Buffett also for the foundation that he and his ex-wife co-chair, which will be able to increase their annual spending on global health, poverty and equality by 50%. until the year 2026.
The foundation’s total endowment now stands at about $70 billion, according to today’s announcement — a huge increase from its $49.9 billion budget in 2020.
Gates fears the “accumulation of crises that we are experiencing”
Gates says the coming years threaten to reverse many of the global philanthropic successes of the past two decades, due to “accumulating crises” and he is tasking his foundation – one of the world’s largest charities – to increase its annual disbursements to record levels to face them, as he has published in his own blog.
Annual payments to charitable causes supported by the foundation are expected to reach $9 billion by 2026, and will focus on mitigating climate change, improving food security, reducing child mortality, ensuring equal access to education and gender equality, and the prevention of future pandemics while eradicating emerging diseases.
– such as the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and worsening climate change – have overlapped to create a unique set of circumstances that require a more prominent humanitarian response.
“Despite the huge global setbacks in recent years, I see incredible heroism and sacrifice around the world and I believe progress is possible.”
For her part, Melinda French Gates highlighted the important role that humanitarian aid will play.
“Philanthropy has a unique role to play in helping people around the world recover from the pandemic and rebuild the underlying systems that left so many people so vulnerable to begin with,” he said.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000, is virtually unparalleled in the magnitude of its giving and its impact over the years, especially in the fields of medicine and preventable disease. The organization has donated billions to try to eradicate diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the years, and is credited with reducing polio cases by 99% since 1988, saving some 18 million children from paralysis.
Warns of long-term economic consequences
But Gates fears that recent years will reverse these advances. He called the pandemic “one of the biggest setbacks in history” and the Ukraine war “a gigantic tragedy for the whole world.” He also pointed out that these two events could have long-lasting global economic consequences, such as the waves of inflation that are appearing in countries around the world and that are increasing the prices of everything from gasoline to fuel.
“The global economy is entering a cycle of low growth, with rising interest rates and high inflation,” Gates wrote, adding that lower public spending in the wake of the pandemic threatens to deplete public funds for humanitarian initiatives, which in part led him to make the decision to increase the foundation’s budget.
“We need all sectors of society – government, the private sector and the not-for-profit sector, including philanthropy – to engage on these issues. Philanthropy is the smallest of these sectors, but it is unique in its ability to test risky ideas that can have a big impact if they are successful and scaled up,” Gates wrote.
Bill Gates – who has a net worth of $122 billion, according to Forbes – has donated more than $50 billion of his and Melinda French Gates’ fortunes to charity since 1994, becoming a trendsetter among philanthropic billionaires in the early days of the foundation. In 2010, he said that his goal was to donate 95% of his wealth to charity. At the moment, he has already exceeded more than 60%.
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