Opinion: The Gates Foundation Should Not Outlive Its Founders

Now that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, has almost doubled its assets with a recent pledge of more than $30-billion from Warren Buffett, the foundation should work hard to spend all its money while its founders are still alive, John J. Miller writes in The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Miller, author of a book on the John M. Olin Foundation, which recently spent its last dollar and closed its doors, says that foundations that try to operate in perpetuity often suffer “intellectual ossification.”

Too often, he says, foundation staff members become overly involved in the causes they support and don’t have the distance needed to support new or radical ideas that might make a difference. (A paid subscription is required to view this article.)