Gates Foundation Awards $40-Million Grant to Hewlett Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will give $40-million to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to support literacy programs in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The grant, in combination with $20-million of its own money the Hewlett Foundation has already committed, will create projects to teach children reading and math and encourage them to stay in school.

This is the first time the Hewlett Foundation has ever received an outside grant for one its programs.

Paul Brest, president of the Hewlett Foundation, said, “Most of our work for the next three years will be doing demonstration projects and building knowledge about what can work with relatively low budgets that can be adopted by the countries themselves. We’re going to be looking for systemic changes that really make a difference.”