Pace of Bill Gates’s Giving Slows as Foundation Expands
May 27, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
Bill Gates has dramatically slowed his donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as it has grown into the country’s largest private philanthropy, The New York Times writes.
Mr. Gates gave $24.6-billion to the organization in the four years after its launch in 1997. From 2002 to 2012, he donated $3.7-billion, according to foundation disclosures and information from a Gates spokesman.
According to the Foundation Center, the Gates foundation has $40.2-billion in assets, more than triple those of America’s second-largest philanthropy, the Ford Foundation. The foundation’s rapid growth, also fueled by massive donations from Warren Buffett, has tested its ability to give away at least 5 percent of its assets annually, as required by law, while ensuring its spending is effective, the Times says.
