Gates Foundation says it’s ‘doubled’ spending while responding to criticism

[ad_1]

The world’s largest foundation said it was doubling down to distribute more money than ever this year, while responding to criticism that it wields too much power with little accountability.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to give $8.3 billion in 2023, an estimated 15% increase from its 2022 payout, the foundation’s chief executive Mark Suzman said in an annual letter.

This puts us in the privileged position of being able to give more money than any other philanthropy, he wrote. It also raises an important question that we often hear: are our expenses, and the doors they open, giving us too much power and influence?

As the world’s largest foundation, the Gates Foundation is a frequent target of critics who say it has too much control over setting global priorities while being unaccountable to anyone.

Suzman took the opportunity to respond to some of that criticism, writing, A criticism we hear a lot: Why are a few unelected billionaires setting the global health and development agenda?

He continued, Yes, our founders are billionaires. But neither they, nor I, nor the rest of our board set the global agenda; as a foundation, we respond to them. Suzman said the goals of the Gates Foundation are guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Suzman said in the letter that the Gates Foundation’s outsized power can be a force for good in the world. It is true that between our dollars, our voice and our mobilizing power, we have access and influence that many others do not have, he wrote. It is also true that we are able to act in ways that others cannot. Because of this, we can attract attention and help find solutions to problems that might otherwise be overlooked.

Suzman also echoed a common argument about the value of philanthropy, saying that unlike private companies and elected officials, philanthropists have more flexibility to take risks. And because our foundation doesn’t need to make a profit like corporations do or provide immediate results like governments do or raise funds like many NGOs do, we can make high risk bets. about innovative solutions that can take a decade or more to bear fruit, he wrote.

Founded in 2000, the Gates Foundation uses its $53.3 billion endowment to try to eradicate diseases such as malaria and improve the lives of people living in poverty, especially in developing countries. It also works to improve gender equality around the world. In the United States, it focuses on K-12 education and post-secondary education. One of his current goals is to improve math education in the United States.

The Gates Foundation has played an influential role in shaping national education policy in the United States, including helping establish the common set of academic standards. Some education policy makers disagreed with the role of foundations in curriculum development, and one expert raised questions about the Gates Foundation’s latest emphasis on teaching mathematics in American public schools.

It’s so fundamentally misguided and so blatantly wrong, in both moral and rational senses, that it’s literally mind-boggling, said Alex Molnar, director of the Commercialism in Education research unit at the National Education Policy Center, to the Associated Press. This very wealthy, very narrow man can continually, continually torment school children while claiming that somehow he is making the world a better place.

Suzman told the AP that the foundation partners with teachers, students and schools to help improve educational outcomes and tries to do its job without imposing ideas on schools.

The Gates Foundation is one of many philanthropic organizations that increased spending at the start of the pandemic. As a general rule, foundations are required to distribute 5% of their assets each year for philanthropic purposes, but some promised to spend more than the minimum required as multiple crises emerged in 2020. Foundations then had more leeway. maneuvering to do so, when a booming stock market inflated their investments. The Gates Foundation announced last year that it would increase its annual payout to $9 billion by 2026.

Until recently, the foundation’s board consisted of just three people: Microsoft MSFT, -1.89% co-founder Bill Gates; his now ex-wife, Melinda French Gates; and Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, -2.05%. Following Gates’ divorce, Buffett resigned from the board and the foundation added six new board members.

Like many tech billionaires, Bill Gates saw his personal fortune dwindle in 2022 as markets plunged. He donated $20 billion that year to his foundation so it could increase spending, and said he planned to retire the list of the world’s richest people eventually. His current net worth is estimated at $103 billion, according to Forbes.

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates remain co-chairs of the foundation. Melinda French Gates has her own philanthropic ambitions and may be leaving the Gates Foundation this year under an arrangement announced by the couple when they separated. His current net worth is estimated at $6.7 billion.

See also: Microsoft confirms plans to lay off around 10,000 workers as tech companies scale back

Don’t miss: These billionaire philanthropists spoke out against the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but that support doesn’t always translate into abortion funding

[ad_2]