Putting the Gates Pledge Into Context: A Sampling of Major Foundation Gifts

How does Bill and Melinda F. Gates’s $10-billion pledge stack up against other big foundation commitments?

Some comparisons:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

• $1-billion in 1999 to start a college scholarship program for minority students from needy families, administered by the United Negro College Fund, in Fairfax, Va.

• $750-million in 1999 to the Vaccine Fund, the fund-raising arm of the newly created Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, in Geneva, to purchase vaccines needed to inoculate children in 75 countries.

• Committed an additional $750-million to the Vaccine Fund (now known as the GAVI Fund) in 2005 to enhance vaccine services in poor countries, expand the use of vaccines in regions where they are urgently needed, accelerate the development of new vaccines, and help guarantee safety by distributing single-use syringes.

Robert Edward (Ted) Turner:

• The news-media mogul, pledged $1-billion over 10 years in 1997 to create and operate the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund, both in Washington. The commitment came at a time when the U.S. government was more than $1-billion in arrears on its payments to the United Nations.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

• $500-million commitment to combat childhood obesity in April 2007

George Soros:

• Pledged $500-million in 1997, to be paid over three years, for public-health, democratization, and other projects in Russia.

Annenberg Foundation:

• Announced a $500-million Annenberg Challenge in 1993, which parceled out grants designed to improve public schools across the country. At the time Walter H. Annenberg, the philanthropy’s founder, hoped the then-unprecedented amount—$742-million in today’s dollars—would “startle” other donors into contributing vast sums to alleviate social problems.

Rockefeller Foundation:

• Allocated up to $300-million in 1986—or $587-million in 2009 dollars—to create the International Program to Support Science-Based Development, which sought to promote the equitable, efficient use of scientific and technological innovations in developing countries.

• More than six decades earlier, in 1923, made another large, single allocation—of $45-million, or $564-million in 2009 dollars—to the General Education Board for its efforts to revamp medical education nationwide. John D. Rockefeller, the oil baron, had created the organization in 1903 to aid education, with an emphasis on Southern institutions and the education of blacks.

Ford Foundation:

• Allocated $260-million in 1955—or nearly $2.1-billion in 2009 dollars—to help augment the salaries of faculty members at U.S. colleges and universities.

Andrew Carnegie:

• From 1898 until his death in 1919, the Scottish-American steel magnate, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave approximately $42-million—more than $500-million in 2009 dollars—to build more than 1,500 public libraries in the United States.