Gates Fund Hires Head for New U.S. Gifts Program

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has appointed Hilary Pennington, a co-founder of Jobs for the Future, to be director of special initiatives for its U.S. gifts program, reports The Wall Street Journal. Her role will be to identify “one-time opportunities and unanticipated events,” according to the article.

Ms. Pennington advised former Presidents Clinton and Bush, and helped develop the 1994 School to Work Opportunities Act. Jobs for the Future, a Gates grant recipient, is a nonprofit advocacy, consulting, and research organization that works to improve education and employment prospects.

The Gates Foundation has typically spent about a quarter of its $31.9-billion grant dollars in the United States, and a source told the Journal that the foundation will continue to spend about that same proportion as investor Warren Buffett begins to fulfill his $30-billion pledge. He has promised to give the Gates fund about $1.5-billion a year, to be spent before the next calendar year.

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