Founders Give Gates Foundation $2-Billion, Raising Philanthropy’s Assets to $23.5-Billion

June 28, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute

By LAURA HRUBY

Microsoft’s co-founder, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda, have donated an additional

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Assets of the Nation’s Wealthiest Foundations

$2-billion in Microsoft stock to their private foundation, raising its endowment to $23.5-billion.

The Gateses made the gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nation’s wealthiest private foundation, earlier this year, the organization announced early this month. Joe Cerrell, a spokesman for the foundation, declined to say exactly when the Gateses made the donation.

The couple made a $5-billion gift to the foundation last year, and three separate donations totaling $16-billion in 1999.

The Gateses’ gift was not earmarked for a specific program or cause. The money “reflects their interest in addressing issues of global health, learning, and libraries,” as well as their commitment to supporting programs that benefit people in the Pacific Northwest, Mr. Cerrell said.

Last week, the foundation announced a multiyear $100-million grant to a United Nations global-health fund, to support programs that seek to prevent AIDS.

The foundation, in Seattle, made nearly $1-billion in grants last year. Its endowment is now worth almost twice that of any other private foundation in the United States.

ASSETS OF THE NATION’S WEALTHIEST FOUNDATIONS

	Amount	Date
1. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle)	$23,500,000,000	June 6, 2001
2. Ford Foundation (New York)	$12,900,000,000	April 30, 2001
3. Lilly Endowment (Indianapolis)	$12,555,413,000 *	March 31, 2001
4. David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Los Altos, Calif.)	$8,400,000,000	May 30, 2001
5. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Princeton, N.J.)	$8,100,000,000	June 13, 2001
* This figure is from the foundation´s most recent filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and includes only the value of stock held in Eli Lilly and Company as of March 31, 2001. The 2000 annual report listed total assets of $15.6-million — which included Eli Lilly stock worth $15.2-million as well as unspecified other holdings.