Locke, Gates Preach Rich Tradition Of Giving Billionaire Saw Parents Work For United Way As He Grew Up

A family reunion for the world’s richest man transformed Wednesday’s United Way kickoff event into a power breakfast for the movers and shakers of Spokane.

By agreeing to be the keynote speaker, Bill Gates, 42, was doing his big sister, Kristi, a favor.

“It’s an invitation I would have a hard time refusing,” Gates said.

In previous years, the United Way kickoff featured a couple of hundred midlevel managers and public relations officers who gathered to hear the annual fund-raising goal.

This year, organizers skipped the pep talk. They didn’t even mention a monetary goal, because one hasn’t been set.

Not only did they manage a major coup in landing Gates, the warm-up speaker was Gov. Gary Locke. He said giving more money to United Way is like welfare reform.

“The marketplace can be callous and uncaring,” Locke said.

“Market forces must be in balance with moral forces.”

By inspiring people to donate more money, United Way volunteers foster a moral renewal in America, he said.

Gates focused on the details of his family’s involvement with United Way.

“It’s a family tradition.”

Gates’ father was a campaign chairman in Seattle.

His mother served on the national board.

His sister, Kristianne Blake, 43, is chairwoman of the Spokane County United Way board of directors and a member of the Spokane Joint Center for Higher Education board.

Locke on Wednesday named Blake to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, filling a position that’s been vacant since the January death of former Spokane mayor Vicki McNeill.

Blake moved to Spokane in 1987 with her husband and two children. She was escaping the frantic culture of national accounting firms by setting up a one-person office.

She quickly got involved in many local charity boards, including the Junior League, the YMCA and United Way.

For a decade, she has kept silent in public about her famous baby brother - for her safety and privacy.

Although it was the worst-kept secret among Spokane’s well-heeled, Blake insisted the connection never appear in print. Until now.

“I decided that it would be more beneficial to the overall campaign if we said why he was here,” she said of her famous brother.

Blake said she agonized over the decision until Tuesday night, 12 hours before the kickoff event.

Finally, she determined that she wanted to share her family’s tradition in United Way.

Involvement in the umbrella charity “is the kind of thing you can pass down. It’s a family value,” she said.

The kickoff, underwritten by four local companies, raised more than $30,000 for United Way.

A handful of people, mostly businessmen, paid $1,000 a ticket for a private meeting with Gates before the breakfast.

One person asked if Microsoft would consider putting an office in the Spokane area to create jobs.

Gates’ response: “Where’s your engineering school?”

During his speech, Gates talked about his mother’s insistence that he start a United Way campaign at his company, even when it was a small operation.

“As the company has grown we’ve had to find bigger and bigger places for a kickoff meeting,” he said.

“We go to the Kingdome now. We’ll have about 20,000 people there Friday afternoon.”

Gates said Microsoft executives frequently agree to public humiliation in the name of raising money. Like last year’s tricycle race.

“I didn’t finish first, but I was definitely in contention,” he said.

More than just getting people to donate money, United Way creates a community fabric, Gates said.

For example, he said, someone might call him (or send him e-mail) to say that a law firm he is using is not participating in United Way.

“I’ll give them a friendly call, no coercion involved,” he said.

“The bottom line is this stuff (networking) is more and more important.”

Gates said he envisions technology and the Internet someday being used as tools to fight poverty, but realizes there will always be a need for charity.

“The fact is all the information in the world will be online and we will use it for education,” he said. “And there will still be people left out.”

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