Microsoft Chief Starts Child-Welfare Group

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, have donated $10-million to found Partners for Our Children, a child-welfare advocacy group, at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work, reports The Seattle Times.

Mark Courtney, a professor at the University of Chicago, will be the group’s executive director. Ms. Ballmer is the board’s chairwoman.

The state Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to regularly give its records to Partners for Our Children so that the group can keep an eye on Washington’s sometimes troubled system of foster and group care, the paper says.

Ms. Ballmer said the cooperation between the government and the charity was unique and very important for the group’s success. “Unless you have the state at the table, you can only get so far,” she told the newspaper.