The planet’s largest philanthropy operates under a creed that is profound in its simplicity:
“Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation works to reduce inequities and improve lives around the world.”
With Warren Buffett’s announcement that he will roughly double the Gates Foundation’s ability to purse those goals, it’s hard to resist rethinking what’s possible.
An end, perhaps, to diseases that ravage the world’s poorest nations? Education systems here and abroad that truly leave no child behind? Community centers where children, no matter their economic, racial or family background, can thrive on an equal footing with each other?
Big dreams, yes. But the combined wealth of the world’s two richest men, aimed strategically and intelligently at some of the world’s biggest problems, makes them seem somehow achievable.
Buffett, 75, who built a $44 billion fortune by acquiring companies he saw as undervalued, knows a good deal when he sees it. As he considered how to fulfill his long-stated promise to give away the bulk of his wealth, he concluded the Gates Foundation offered the best way to maximize its reach. (Disclosure: Buffett and Melinda Gates sit on the board of directors of The Washington Post Co., which owns The Herald.)
Buffett’s gift figures to be worth around $31 billion, effectively matching the current assets of the Gates Foundation, which until now was funded solely by the Microsoft Corp. chairman and his wife. Once a year beginning in July, Buffett will contribute about $1.5 billion worth of stock in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, to the Gates Foundation, which will be required to spend it that same year. Smaller amounts will go to four other family foundations. In all, Buffett has pledged to give away 85 percent of his wealth.
Bill Gates, 50, who announced earlier this month that he plans to refocus most of his attention from Microsoft to the foundation, told Fortune magazine that Buffett’s gift will allow the foundation to “both deepen and accelerate” its work.
That’s great news for the world, and our corner of it. The Gateses live in Medina, and have contributed enormously to good works in their own backyard. In Snohomish County alone, a long list of schools and charitable organizations have benefitted from Gates grants. Earlier this year, for example, the foundation committed to giving $450,000 to the planned YMCA in Monroe, and $150,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Snohomish County.
Andrew Carnegie, who helped set the standard for philanthropy before the Gateses and Buffett came along, once said, “Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.”
The Gateses, and now Buffett, see the world as their community. They’re using their wealth to change it.
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