Seattle, WA. Bill and Melinda Gates have announced that they are ending their twenty-seven-year marriage but will continue to serve as co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives,” the couple tweeted from their respective Twitter accounts on Monday. The foundation has given grants to many Oregon nonprofits including OHSU, local high schools, OMSI and many more.
In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates join Warren Buffett to create the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage America’s wealthiest families to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charities. By 2020, the Giving Pledge includes more than 200 of the world’s wealthiest individuals, couples, and families across 23 countries.
“Bill and Melinda will remain co-chairs and trustees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” the foundation said in a statement. “No changes to their roles or the organization are planned. They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues, and set the organization’s overall direction.” Established in 2000, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is today the world’s largest private foundation, with an endowment of $49.8 billion as of the end of 2019 and an annual grant-making budget of approximately $5 billion.
Married in 1994, Bill and Melinda Gates quickly set about giving to nonprofits. They launched the Gates Library Foundation in 1997.
Building on the belief that the power of personal computing can provide a link to knowledge and productivity for everyone, Bill and Melinda launch the Gates Library Foundation to help all U.S. public libraries offer free internet access. The Gates Library Foundation later became the Gates Learning Foundation which morphed into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2010, the couple, together with Warren Buffett — who pledged in 2006 to give the lion’s share of his fortune to the Gates Foundation — created the Giving Pledge, a campaign to persuade billionaires to publicly commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
In 2015, Melinda Gates launched Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company focused on advancing gender equity, while Bill Gates has had his own investment vehicle, Gates Ventures, since 2008.
The petition for dissolution of marriage filed by Melinda Gates and posted by Yahoo! Finance shows that while the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement when they married in 1994, they do have a separation agreement that sets forth how their possessions, assets, and/or business interests will be divided. The 2021 Forbes World’s Billionaire’s List estimates Bill Gates’s net worth at $133 billion. Bill Gates transferred nearly $2.4 billion worth of stock to Melinda on the day they announced their divorce. According to the New York Times, Melinda Gates is likely to set up a new foundation or directly support the causes she supports if receives a portion of her husband’s Microsoft holdings. MacKenzie Scott, who received shares of Amazon stock worth $36 billion in her divorce from Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, has given nearly $6 billion to philanthropic causes since 2019.
“The Gates Foundation is the most important and influential philanthropic entity in the world today,” Rob Reich, a professor of political science at Stanford University, told the Times. “The divorce may have huge repercussions for the foundation and for its work across the globe.”
Beaverton, OR. Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny ranked 4th nationally in philanthropic giving for 2020. The couple donated $1.37 billion in charitable gifts, according to a new report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The Chronicle reports the Knights gave $465 million to the University of Oregon in 2020 and $900.7 million to the Knight Foundation, a private foundation the family formed in 1997. Additionally, the Knights supported the Oregon Community Foundation Recovery Fund, which is providing pandemic relief. They also gave Oregon Health & Science University a grant for Covid-19 testing, treatment, and containment, according to the Chronicle.
Every February, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports on the 50 donors who made the biggest gifts during the previous calendar year. Overall, donors on the top-50 list gave big to address poverty, the ongoing Covid pandemic, and racial-justice issues.
The philanthropists in the 2020 rankings gave away $24.7 billion last year, but they’re not required to publicly disclose how much they give or which causes they support. Emily Haynes from the Chronicle of Philanthropy credits her colleague Maria Di Mento for compiling the list.
Jeff Bezos topped the list by donating $10 billion to launch the Bezos Earth Fund to mitigate climate change. On February 2nd, Bezos announced he was stepping down as Amazon CEO to devote more time to philanthropy and other projects. He also contributed $100 million to Feeding America, an organization that supplies more than 200 food banks.
Below is the Chronicle of Philanthropy list of the 50 donors who made the biggest gifts in 2020.
1. Jeff Bezos
$10,150,000,000
LOCATION: Medina, Wash.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Environmental Conservation
2. MacKenzie Scott
$5,734,000,000
LOCATION: Seattle, Wash.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Human Services
3. Michael Bloomberg
$1,600,000,000
LOCATION: New York, N.Y.
WEALTH SOURCE: Media
TOP CAUSE: Various
4. Philip and Penelope Knight
$1,365,667,500
LOCATION: Portland, Ore.
WEALTH SOURCE: Manufacturing and Retail
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
5. Jack Dorsey
$1,099,237,116
LOCATION: San Francisco, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Pandemic Relief
6. John and Laura Arnold
$567,000,000
LOCATION: Houston, Tex.
WEALTH SOURCE: Energy; Finance
TOP CAUSE: Various
7. Eric and Wendy Schmidt
$469,600,000
LOCATION: Atherton, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Various
8. Pierre and Pam Omidyar
$441,000,000
LOCATION: Honolulu, Hawaii
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Various
9. Frederick and June Kummer
$300,000,000
LOCATION: St. Louis, Mo.
WEALTH SOURCE: Construction
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
10. Denny Sanford
$224,238,000
LOCATION: Sioux Falls, S.D.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance
TOP CAUSE: Various
11. Stephen Ross
$179,500,000
LOCATION: New York, N.Y.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real estate
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
12. John and Susan Sobrato
$176,750,000
LOCATION: Cupertino, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real estate
TOP CAUSE: Various
13. Bill and Melinda Gates
$157,000,000
LOCATION: Medina, Wash.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Various
14. Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin
$151,000,000
LOCATION: Los Gatos, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Entertainment
TOP CAUSE: Financial Aid
15. Sheryl Sandberg
$122,803,653
LOCATION: Menlo Park, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Various
16. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan
$120,000,000
LOCATION: Palo Alto, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Various
17. Craig Newmark
$100,000,000
LOCATION: San Francisco, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Advertising
TOP CAUSE: Various
17. David and Barbara Roux
$100,000,000
LOCATION: Upperville, Va.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance; Technology
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
19. Phyllis Brissenden
$96,878,452
LOCATION: Springfield, Ill.
WEALTH SOURCE: Investments
TOP CAUSE: Performing Arts
20. Sergey Brin and Nicole Shanahan
$78,300,000
LOCATION: Mountain View, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Various
21. Irwin and Joan Jacobs
$66,414,006
LOCATION: La Jolla, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Telecommunications
TOP CAUSE: Various
22. George and Renee Karfunkel
$66,400,000
LOCATION: Brooklyn, N.Y.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance; Real Estate
TOP CAUSE: Religion
23. Arthur Blank
$65,700,000
LOCATION: Atlanta, Ga.
WEALTH SOURCE: Retail
TOP CAUSE: Various
24. Charles and Helen Schwab
$65,000,000
LOCATION: Atherton, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance
TOP CAUSE: Homelessness
25. Hock Tan and Lisa Yang
$64,450,000
LOCATION: San Jose, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Neuroscience
26. Wilbur (Billy) and Ann Powers
$60,000,000
LOCATION: Florence, S.C.
WEALTH SOURCE: Construction
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
27. David and Dana Dornsife
$59,000,000
LOCATION: Danville, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Manufacturing
TOP CAUSE: Clean Water
28. Robert Smith
$54,997,551
LOCATION: Austin, Tex.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance
TOP CAUSE: College-Loan Debt
29. Leon and Debra Black
$53,800,000
LOCATION: New York, N.Y.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance
TOP CAUSE: Various
30. Gail Miller
$52,800,000
LOCATION: Sandy, Utah
WEALTH SOURCE: Entertainment; Retail
TOP CAUSE: Health Care
31. Michael Jordan
$52,000,000
LOCATION: Charlotte, N.C.
WEALTH SOURCE: Professional Sports
TOP CAUSE: Racial Justice
32. Richard and Mary Templeton
$51,000,000
LOCATION: Dallas, Tex.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
33. Chris Malachowsky
$50,000,000
LOCATION: Santa Clara, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Artificial Intelligence
33. Gordon Rausser
$50,000,000
LOCATION: Berkeley, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Investments
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
33. Sheldon and Anne Vogel
$50,000,000
LOCATION: Colts Neck, N.J.
WEALTH SOURCE: Entertainment
TOP CAUSE: Health Care
36. Ronald and Eileen Weiser
$44,522,281
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, Mich.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real Estate
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
37. Bob and JoAnn Glick
$42,350,000
LOCATION: Cleveland, Ohio
WEALTH SOURCE: Retail
TOP CAUSE: Health Care
38. Jim and Thomas Duff
$41,145,000
LOCATION: Columbia, Miss.
WEALTH SOURCE: Investments
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
39. Richard and Nancy Kinder
$40,030,500
LOCATION: Houston, Tex.
WEALTH SOURCE: Energy
TOP CAUSE: Various
40. Marc and Lynne Benioff
$40,000,000
LOCATION: San Francisco, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Environmental Conservation
40. William and Joanne Conway
$40,000,000
LOCATION: McLean, Va.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance
TOP CAUSE: Nursing
40. Haslam family
$40,000,000
LOCATION: Knoxville, Tenn.
WEALTH SOURCE: Retail
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
40. Will and Cary Singleton
$40,000,000
LOCATION: Santa Monica, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Agriculture; Family wealth
TOP CAUSE: Neuroscience
44. Irvin Kanthak
$33,700,000*
LOCATION: Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real Estate
TOP CAUSE: Financial Aid
45. Bruce and Debra Grewcock
$30,000,000
LOCATION: Omaha, Neb.
WEALTH SOURCE: Construction
TOP CAUSE: Financial Aid
45. Daniel and Jennifer Hord
$30,000,000
LOCATION: Midland, Tex.
WEALTH SOURCE: Oil; Real Estate
TOP CAUSE: Financial Aid
47. Joseph Gebbia Jr.
$27,000,000
LOCATION: San Francisco, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Homelessness
48. Richard McVey
$25,900,000
LOCATION: New York, N.Y.
WEALTH SOURCE: Finance
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
49. Warner and Debbie Lusardi
$25,050,000
LOCATION: Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Construction
TOP CAUSE: Health Care
50. Steve and Jackie Bell
$25,000,000
LOCATION: Greensboro, N.C.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real Estate
TOP CAUSE: Higher Education
50. Christopher and Lisa Jeffries
$25,000,000
LOCATION: Miami, Fla.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real Estate
TOP CAUSE: Health Care
50. Brad and Alys Smith
$25,000,000
LOCATION: Mountain View, Calif.
WEALTH SOURCE: Technology
TOP CAUSE: Economic Development
50. Helena Theurer
$25,000,000
LOCATION: Park Ridge, N.J.
WEALTH SOURCE: Real estate
TOP CAUSE: Health Care
No. 2 on the list was Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, who gave $5.7 billion in 2020 to 512 organizations by asking community leaders to help identify worthy groups for seven- and eight-figure gifts, including food banks, human-service organizations, and racial-justice charities.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who ranked No. 5, put $1.1 billion into a fund that by year’s end had distributed at least $330 million to more than 100 nonprofits. The financier Charles Schwab and his wife, Helen (No. 24), gave $65 million to address homelessness in San Francisco. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and wife, Patty Quillin (No. 14), gave $120 million for financial aid for students at historically Black colleges and universities. Michael Jordan, the basketball great (No. 31), pledged $50 million to racial and social-justice groups.
“When I look at the events of the last year, there was an awakening for the philanthropic sector,” says Nick Tedesco, president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. “Donors supported community-led efforts of recovery and resiliency, particularly those led by people of color.”
Giving experts say they think the trend toward broader giving is likely to persist.
That’s significant given the immense sums top donors are able to contribute. The top five donors this year gave $1 billion-plus, matching last year’s record. No more than three donors gave $1 billion or more in any of the previous years.
Nearly a third of the donors on the list made their fortunes in technology. Tech billionaires’ wealth is compounding while many working people are still suffering from the pandemic’s fallout. Given that disparity, philanthropic expectations have never been higher. David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, highlighted the disparate effects of the pandemic in a January interview on the PBS NewsHour.
“During the pandemic, billionaires made $5.2 billion in increased wealth per day,” he said. “All we are asking for is $5 billion to avert famine around the world. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
Some of the ultrawealthy are nevertheless holding back on giving. Among them is Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, whose $180 billion fortune puts him neck-and-neck with Bezos for richest person in the world. Musk is not on the Philanthropy 50 and has faced criticism for his meager lifetime donations, estimated in a recent Vox article at just 0.05 percent of his current net worth.
“It’s unconscionable for someone like that to not give in a meaningful way,” says Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy.
Many of those who did give big chose to support small and midsize charities. But popular causes like higher education still saw sizable contributions.
Benjamin Soskis, a research associate at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, says the most striking change in this year’s Philanthropy 50 list is that it presents a plurality of options for giving. Colleges and universities received $2.2 billion from Philanthropy 50 donors in 2020, but it’s notable that many of them were historically black colleges and universities, Soskis says.
“There’s a big difference between a hypothetical ‘Why didn’t you give to an HBCU instead of Harvard?’ and today’s list, where you can point to donors who actually did that.”
As in years past, the Philanthropy 50 list for 2020 is overwhelmingly white — but that’s no reason for major-gift officers to ignore potential donors of color. Roughly 14 percent of millionaires are people of color, and that number seems likely to grow as demographics keep changing. I put together a sampling of donors of color to watch. Many of them — such as financier Mellody Hobson, art collector Eileen Harris Norton, and biopharmaceutical entrepreneur Jie Du — gave to colleges and universities. Racial justice was another popular cause.
Portland, OR. Medical Teams International received a $350,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to increase access to life-saving primary healthcare services for 120,000 Venezuelan migrants living now in Santa Marta, Colombia. Bill and Melinda Gates, pictured in Bangladesh, have a stated foundation goal: “In high-burden communities, millions of women and newborns die during childbirth and the first month of life – the majority, due to preventable causes. We channel our resources to understand and address underlying risks to keep women and their children healthy.”
In Columbia, a Venezuelan migrant named Stefanie is one of many trying to raise young children. The mass migration to Columbia started because Venezuela’s economic and political crisis has now reached a state of hyperinflation due to chronic resource shortages and government corruption. (Photo credit: Sarah Rawlins)
“Mothers are dying unnecessarily without access to care,” said Martha Holley Newsome, Medical Teams International President and CEO. “As an organization, we are called to go where we are needed most. This generous grant from the Gates Foundation will allow us to do exactly this, by providing life-saving care to the most vulnerable Venezuelans in Colombia like children and pregnant women.”
Nearby, an elderly couple is struggling to care for their handicapped daughter.
“The scale of what is happening in Venezuela is considered to be the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. Persons displaced from Venezuela represent more people than the combined number that have fled from South Sudan and Myanmar. The situation is dire — an estimated 60 percent of medical assistance has been lost, with recent indicators of maternal mortality at an increase of 65 percent.
Since the crisis began, more than four million people have left Venezuela. By the end of last year, access to affordable food and medical care was nearly impossible for millions of people.
“Venezuelans report that the collapse of the economy has led to them being unable to meet their own very basic needs such as food, water, and medicine,” said Medical Teams Humanitarian Advisor Rachel Rigby. “In Colombia, we’re seeing people arriving with nothing, having had to use what little resources they had to pay to illegally cross the border.”
While the government of Colombia has been welcoming to new Venezuelan arrivals, the need for medical care far surpasses the country’s ability to provide them with basic assistance. Medical Teams will support the Colombian government by providing care for Venezuelan migrants and vulnerable Colombians. The program is focused on caring for pregnant and lactating women and young children, as well as ensuring vulnerable communities have access to life-saving medical care.
In addition to strengthening the Colombian health system by supporting local primary health care facilities, this grant will also help implement a Community Health Worker program to train volunteers to create social health behavior changes within their communities, map and monitor vulnerable populations, and provide referrals to local health facilities.
“Without Medical Teams’ help, these women would not receive any prenatal care and would have to find a clinic to deliver their baby in, while in labor,” Rigby said. “Young children are suffering from preventable and treatable illnesses, so our community health work program alongside targeted care is allowing families to learn how to prevent disease.”
From Medical Teams International:
For 40 years, Medical Teams International has worked in more than 35 countries and currently operates in Bangladesh, Colombia, Guatemala, Lebanon, Tanzania, and Uganda, collaborating with more than 50 local partners globally. Medical Teams has executed more than 26 U.S. government international assistance grants and implemented projects with the United Nations High Commission of Refugees, U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, United Nations Children’s Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others on a diverse range of health and nutrition interventions. Medical Teams strives to implement innovative and efficient health interventions that save lives and promote a caring world.
Founded in 1979, Medical Teams International provides life-saving medical care for people in crisis, such as survivors of natural disasters and refugees. We care for the whole person— physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Daring to love like Jesus, we serve all people—regardless of religion, nationality, sex or race. Because every person—no matter where they are or how desperate their situation—matters. Find Medical Teams International at medicalteams.org and on social media using @medicalteams.
Seattle, WA. As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates works to improve global health and education. Her family foundation was launched in 2000 and is said to be the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world. Based in Seattle, the foundation is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. It has an estimated endowment of over $44.3 billion. In 2012, Melinda Gates pledged $560 million to improve access to contraception for women in poor countries. Now she’s speaking out about how ongoing efforts are falling short. (Photos courtesy of the Gates Foundation)
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By Melinda Gates: Like most women I know, I have used contraceptives for many years. I knew I wanted to work both before and after becoming a mom, so I delayed getting pregnant until Bill and I were sure we were ready to start our family. Twenty years later, we have three children, born almost exactly three years apart. None of that happened by accident.
The decision about whether and when to get pregnant was a decision that Bill and I made based on what was right for me and what was right for our family—and that’s something I feel lucky about. There are still over 225 million women around the world who don’t have access to the modern contraceptives they need to make these decisions for themselves.
In the decade and a half since Bill and I started our foundation, I’ve heard from women all over the world about how important contraceptives are to their ability to take charge of their futures. When women are able to plan their pregnancies around their goals for themselves and their families, they are also better able to finish their education, earn an income, and fully participate in their communities.
And not only do moms benefit; their kids benefit, too. In communities where women have access to contraceptives, children stay in school longer, and entire families are healthier, wealthier and far better equipped to break the cycle of poverty.
For all of these reasons, in 2012, I co-chaired a summit that brought leaders from around the world together around the goal of expanding expand access to contraceptives for the women who desperately want and need them. The global partnership, called Family Planning 2020, pledged to get 120 million more women access to contraceptives by the year 2020. It was an ambitious but achievable goal—and an important promise to women in the world’s poorest places that they will not be forgotten.
Unfortunately, our progress has not yet lived up to our ambition. We are now more than halfway to the 2020 deadline, but not yet on track to reach 120 million women by the promised date. As of the halfway point in July 2016, we had reached 24 million additional women with family planning services. Unless we begin making up for lost time, we will miss this chance to make this a turning point for women around the world.
When I think about what’s at stake over the next three years, I think about the lives of women like Anita and Sushila, both of whom I met last year in a village in India called Kamrawa.
Anita, who guesses she’s about 40 years old, lived most of her life without access to contraceptives. She got married when she was a teenager and became pregnant within a year of her wedding. The birth of her first child was followed by the birth of four more. None of these pregnancies were planned—because without contraceptives, planning her family simply wasn’t an option.
Anita, pictured here with her 6-month-old granddaughter, Neha, lived most of her life without access to contraceptives. But things in their village of Kamrawa, India, have changed since Anita was a young mother.
When I asked Anita what it was like to raise so many kids on such a limited income, she got sad and reflective. “I had a lot of problems,” she told me. She spent all of her time and energy looking after her family and trying to keep her household running—preparing food, tending to animals, keeping things clean in a house with no running water—leaving almost no time at all for her to do anything else, even get a job to help with expenses. It was a life of deprivation, hard work and endless worrying.
But things in Kamrawa have changed since Anita was a young mother. Now, contraceptives are widely available, and women have the chance to make the reproductive decisions that are right for themselves and their families. As a result, families are smaller, and parents are better able to afford nutritious food and school fees for all of their kids. The whole village is healthier and more prosperous.
Anita dries papad, a kind of flat bread, on a cot outside her home in Kamrawa, India.
Even though her children are grown, Anita is excited about what this means for the next generation. “I don’t want my daughter-in-law to go through the same problems,” she told me.
Another woman I met, Sushila, is a 28-year-old teacher who’s using contraceptives to plan her family and her future. She has two children—a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter—and loves being a mom. But Sushila and her husband are committed to limiting the size of their family so that they’re able to give each of their children the lives they deserve.
Sushila is a 28-year-old teacher from India who’s using contraceptives to plan her family and her future.
Sushila also told me that as soon as both her kids are in school, she plans to return to her job as a teacher. A generation ago, working moms were almost unheard of in villages like Kamrawa. But now that women have the option to plan their pregnancies, they have many other options, too.
When you think about the difference between Anita’s life and Sushila’s life, it’s clear that progress is possible. The question is whether we will commit the resources and mobilize the will to ensure that this progress extends to more women in more places.
In 2012, we made a promise to women around the world. Our actions over the next three years will decide whether we keep it.
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