When the name Bill Gates is heard, most people think of the company Microsoft or the richest man in the world….right? Actually both describe the man although the man himself would rather be known from what he says is his most important contribution to mankind.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) is being used to seek cures for the world's worst diseases and improve American education. Gates’ mantra is “There is no reason we can't cure the top 20 diseases." 

The B&MGF was founded by Bill and Melinda Gates in 2000 and doubled in size by Warren Buffett in 2006. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and, in the United States, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.

The is a lot of money in the world being hoarded by greedy, self-centered people whose main concern is how much more can they hoard without giving a second thought to how much power they have to change the world for the better.

We read and watch these people on the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” type programs. We marvel and drool over what these people have and how they live their lives. Me, me, me as the world goes hungry and dies from curable maladies.

To the rescue comes organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation whose focus is on what can be done to alleviate a little of the pain and misery in the world.

First. let’s talk about the bucks! As of 2006, the foundation has an endowment of approximately US$34.6 billion. To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, it must donate at least 5% of its assets each year. Thus the donations from the foundation each year would amount to over US$1.5 billion at a minimum.

The Foundation has three grant making programs:

• Global Health Programs
• Global Developemnt Programs
• United States Program
• **A new program being considered is the giving of hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years to programs aimed at encouraging saving by the world's poor

Global Health Program gives approximately US$800 million every year which approaches the annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization (193 nations) and is comparable to the funds given to fight infectious disease by the United States Agency for International Development.

The Global Health Program's other significant grants include:

• The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization – $750 million
• The Institute for OneWorld Health – $10 million
• Children's Vaccine Program – $27 million
• University of Washington Department of Global Health – $30 million
• HIV Research – $287 million

Global Development Program combats extreme poverty through grants such as the following:

Financial Services for the Poor

• Financial Access Initiative – a $5 million grant to do field research and answer important questions about micro finance and financial access in impoverished countries around the world.
• Grameen Foundation – a $1.5 million grant to make more microloans, with the goal of helping five million additional families and successfully freeing 50 percent of those families from poverty within five years

Agricultural Development

• Rice Research – donated $19 million to develop rice with higher amounts of micronutrients
• Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) – partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to enhance agricultural science and small-farm productivity in Africa making an initial $100 million investment matched by Rockefeller’s $50 million contribution.

Global Libraries

• Access to Learning Award – giving  up to US$1 million annually to a public library or similar organization outside the United States that has an innovative program offering the public free access to information technology.

Global Special Initiatives include responses to catastrophes as well as learning grants, which are used to experiment with new areas of giving. Currently, the Foundation is exploring water, hygiene and sanitation as a new focus within Global Development.

• Indian Ocean Earthquake - made total grant donations of US$3 million to various charities to help with the aid effort for victims
• Kashmir Earthquake –  made a donation of US$500,000
• Water, Hygiene and Sanitation – giving US$1,200,000 over 3 years to find new, sustainable ways to make water, sanitation and hygiene services safer and more affordable.

United States Program  has made grants such as the following:

U.S. Libraries is an  initiative with a goal of "ensuring that if you can get to a public library, you can reach the Internet." The foundation has given grants, installed computers and software, and provided training and technical support in partnership with public libraries nationwide.

Most recently, the foundation gave a $12.2-million grant to the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) to assist libraries in Louisiana and Mississippi on the Gulf Coast, many of which were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

Education

• Carnegie Mellon University was given US$20 million for the School of Computer Science for a new Computer Science building which will be named the Gates Center for Computer Science
• D.C. Achievers Scholarships was given a $122 million initiative to send hundreds of the District of Columbia's poorest students to college
• Gates Cambridge Scholarships donated US$210 million in October 2000 to help outstanding graduate students outside of the U.K. study at the University of Cambridge. Approximately 100 new students every year are funded
• Gates Millennium Scholars – administered by the United Negro College Fund the foundation donated US$1 billion for scholarships to high achieving minority students
• New Schools Venture Fund contributed US$30 million to help NewSchools to manage more charter schools, which aim to prepare students in historically underserved areas for college and careers.
• Strong American Schools – the Foundation joined forces with the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation pledging a joint $60 million to create Strong American Schools, a nonprofit project responsible for running ED in 08, an initiative and information campaign aimed at encouraging 2008 presidential contenders to include education in their campaign policies.
• University Scholars Program - donated US$20 million in 1998 to endow a scholarship program at Melinda Gates' alma mater, Duke University.
• Washington State Achievers Scholarship encourages schools to create cultures of high academic achievement while providing scholarship support to select college-bound students
• William H. Gates Public Service Law Program awards five full scholarships annually to the University of Washington School of Law. Scholars commit to working in relatively low-paying public service legal positions for at least the first five years following graduation.

Pacific Northwest

• Discovery Institute – donated US$1 million in 2000 to the Discovery Institute and pledged US$9.35 million over 10 years in 2003

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  Rainier Scholars – donated US$1 million

   

EDITORIAL NOTE: It is amazing that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a $35 billion behemoth, manages to go about its business discreetly while impacting the world we live in in a significant way. The impact their work has on humanity is immeasurable.

We would only like to say, thank you….thank you very much!

AROUND the BLOGOSPHERE:

Bill and Melinda Gates to Save World Health One TV Show at a Time ... - ARLINGTON, VA — The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer announced today that public broadcaster WETA, its co-producer, has received a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a dedicated NewsHour ...

castinghero - Bill Gates presses Obama on stimulus package ... - Gates, one of the world's richest men and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is also calling on Obama to increase investments in the nation's education system and spur technological advances to improve agriculture, ...

Melinda Gates on her new life with Bill - TechFlash: Seattle's ... - Bill and Melinda Gates (Foundation Photo). These two new Times of London stories about Melinda Gates read at times as if penned by Barbara Walters. One reporter can barely get past the second paragraph before writing about Gates ...

Gates Foundation Scholarships « Mike’s Daily Blog - Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) is currently seeking nominations for outstanding students of color seeking assistance with paying for college. You are invited to nominate outstanding ...

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Pledge $3B for Education - AppScout - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend $3 billion on education initiatives in the next five years in an effort to double the number of low-income young people who receive college degrees by age 26.