Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, makes an extraordinary injection of 20,000 million dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which will increase its spending on health, poverty and equality by 50%
The founder intends to get out of the list of the richest people in the world by donating his entire fortune to the philanthropic foundation that he chairs with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. And, as an immediate measure, it announced this Wednesday an extraordinary injection of 20,000 million dollars (approximately 19,800 million euros). In turn, one of the largest foundations in the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced that thanks to these new funds, it will be able to increase its annual spending on global health, poverty and equality by 50% until the year 2026. Its objective : confront the “accumulated global crises” that are shaking the planet.
Bill Gates has explained on his blog “As I look to the future, my plan is to donate all my wealth to the foundation, leaving aside what I spend on myself and my family”. “I make donations and investments in health issues in the United States, including Alzheimer’s, outside of the foundation. I will continue to invest and donate funds, through Breakthrough Energy (something like Breakthrough or Transformative Energy), to combat climate change. I hope that the work in these areas will produce money that can also go to the foundation”, he emphasized. “I feel privileged to be able to get involved in facing these challenges, I enjoy the work and I believe that I have the obligation to return my resources to society, in the way that they have the greatest possible impact in reducing suffering and improving health. lives”. “Donating money is not a sacrifice for me.”
The millionaire contribution that, according to The USA Herald, represents a fifth of Bill Gates’s fortune, places the ex-partner as the largest philanthropists in the world, with some 55,000 million dollars (practically the same amount of euros, given the parity of both coins) donated so far. The donation, according to the publication, drops Gates one spot on the list of the world’s richest people, to number five.
The promise was to donate most of his fortune to philanthropic causes “to address some of society’s most pressing problems.” In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates devised, together with magnate Warren Buffett, the Giving Pledge initiative (something like The commitment to give), which was joined by 40 millionaire individuals and families and which today exceeds 400 signatories Since 2006, Buffett has contributed to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 35,700 million, half of his wealth.
The funds of the Gates Foundation thus reach, according to their own data, 70,000 million dollars. As a reference, and also according to the organization itself, the foundation has spent 79.2 billion dollars since its inception in 2000. Bill Gates’ injection of capital is added, reports the foundation, to the joint announcement by the ex-partner of a contribution of 15,000 million in July of last year, and the donation of 3,100 million by Warren Buffett this June.
Bill and Melinda Gates divorced in 2021, but both continue to share the presidency of their foundation. Earlier this year it was revealed that, after the separation, Melinda French Gates (who has reverted to her maiden name) had changed her plans and planned to spread her fortune among various philanthropic companies, instead of leaving the bulk to the organization that runs her Name.
“But the great crises of our time require us to do more (…) I hope that, by giving more, we can alleviate some of the current suffering of the people and fulfill the mission of the foundation: to give all people the opportunity to live a healthy life and productive.” “Despite the enormous setbacks of recent years, I see incredible examples of heroism and sacrifice around the world, and I believe that progress is possible,” Bill Gates declared in a press release on Wednesday, showing his usual optimism. reported The USA Herald, a news and information agency.
