Gates’ move signals shift in philanthropy
Bill Gates’ deeper focus on his foundation is likely to accelerate its impact in two areas reflecting his entrepreneurial background - battling diseases such as malaria, and on how philanthropy itself operates.
Gates is on a path that could mean his biggest impact will be on philanthropy, rather than technology. In a vivid sign of that, Gates, 50, his wife Melinda and the singer Bono were named Time magazine’s persons of the year in December for their philanthropic work.
Still, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, devoted to health care and education reform, is unlikely to dramatically change its mission as Gates devotes more time to what has become the world’s biggest charitable foundation, with about $29 billion in assets.
“Their priorities will continue to be in the same direction,” says Steve Gunderson, CEO of the Council on Foundations, a trade organization.
The foundation invests in partnerships with pharmaceutical companies that otherwise might not pursue cures with little profit potential. Last year, for example, it earmarked $258 million for advanced development of a malaria vaccine to fight a disease that kills 2,000 African children every day.
That’s a strategic shift from the older model of philanthropy: Foundations would wait for drugs to be available, then pay for distribution, says Gene Tempel of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. “He’s just very interested in seeing problems solved where no one else has stepped before,” Tempel said.
More broadly, that reflects the entrepreneurial approach to running foundations that Gates is inspiring, Gunderson says. The Gates foundation identifies specific problems, such as battling the AIDS virus, then designs a strategy calling for a mix of science and money to seek solutions.
Compared with other famous philanthropists, such as the 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Gates got his start in charity relatively young - in his early 40s. Now, more young entrepreneurs may launch foundations of their own, says Ian Wilhelm, a senior reporter at “The Chronicle of Philanthropy,” a trade publication.
Wilhelm notes that the two billionaire founders of Internet giant Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, launched their own foundation last year while in their early 30s.