In E-Mail Chat, Microsoft Chief Discusses Giving

Following are excerpts from an e-mail message written by Bill Gates in response to questions posed by The Chronicle:

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Q. You’ve said that you hope eventually to turn your attention fulltime to philanthropy. When might that happen?

A. Melinda and my father are spending considerable time on our family’s philanthropy. I suppose I’m spending about 5 or 6 hours a week. It’s been fantastic to meet with people involved in some of these projects . . . to learn about the problems and what can be done to solve them.

We are lucky enough to be able to travel extensively and we’ve been able to meet with leaders in the non-profit sector all over the world.

So, while my main focus is my job at Microsoft — and I don’t plan on giving that up anytime soon — I’m spending considerable time on our family’s giving. You’ll see our involvement in this continue to grow over the next years.

Q. Will the Internet and other forms of technology change the way people give?

A. It can be pretty hard work to give away money in a really smart and effective way. So the Internet is a tremendous tool because it lets you go out and do research, learn about organizations and projects. Some sites even let you make donations on line.

The easier you make it to get information, the easier it’s going to be to get potential donors interested and engaged. I think that’s a big advantage and I hope lots of organizations will take advantage of the opportunities the Internet provides.

Q. Do you want to serve as a role model for other donors?

A. I agree with my friend Warren Buffett on this. Just because I have been fortunate in one aspect of my life doesn’t make me an expert in lots of other areas. Growing up, giving and community involvement were very important in my family. If other people become interested in organizations or projects because of our involvement, that’s fantastic. But I still think that giving is a very personal decision.

From our earliest days at Microsoft, we’ve encouraged our people to give. We have a pretty generous matching-gift program. We really want to make it fun and easy to give. I’m proud of how many of our employees participate. They’re supporting a lot of very cool organizations and projects.

Q. How do you keep from being overwhelmed with requests for money?

A. We want to stay small and very hands-on for as long as it is practical, for a couple of reasons. We’d rather give the money away than spend it on overhead — and we feel we can stay closer to the organizations we’re supporting. Both of our foundations have pretty small staffs — so it’s tough for them to keep up with requests. Because we don’t accept unsolicited proposals, that is a help. But it’s still a big job.