Philanthropy’s $60-Billion Behemoth
July 20, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
By committing the bulk of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett is expected to increase the foundation’s spending power by at least $31-billion in coming years. If all the money Mr. Buffett pledged were handed to the foundation today, it would more than double the size of the Gates Foundation. What’s more, Gates would be as wealthy as the next eight largest grant makers in the Unted States combined.
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THE WORLD’S TOP ECONOMIESWhen the current assets of the Gates Foundation are combined with Warren Buffett’s pledge, the foundation has enough money to be the 55th-largest economy in the world, larger than the gross domestic product of such oil-rich nations as Iraq, Kuwait, and Libya.
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MAJOR FEDERAL PROGRAMS With the Buffett money, the Gates Foundation’s assets outstrip the amount the government spends on many of its programs. Its total assets would be equivalent to more than the federal government will spend this year on food stamps and on research by the National Institutes of Health combined.
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AMERICA’S BIGGEST COMPANIES The infusion of Buffett money would make the Gates Foundation’s assets comparable to the holding of corporations such as Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft.
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