SEATTLE, May 3 (Reuters) - Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce will entail complex decisions about how to handle their wealth after 27 years of marriage. Show
Here are details about their wealth and the couple's philanthropic activities. BILL GATES Bill Gates is the world's fourth-richest person with a net worth of $130.5 billion, according to Forbes. Gates dropped out of Harvard University to co-found technology giant Microsoft (MSFT.O) with school friend Paul Allen in 1975. Gates owned 49% of Microsoft at its initial public offering in 1986, which made him an instant multi-millionaire. With Microsoft’s explosive growth, he soon became the world’s richest person. He has since lost that title, partly by donating money to philanthropic causes. He was also overtaken due to growth at other companies. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk and Louis Vuitton boss Bernard Arnault and his family take the three top spots on the Forbes wealth list, with Gates at No. 4. GATES FOUNDATION The couple established the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. It is one of the world's largest charitable organizations, with a focus on public health, education and climate change. Its grants included some $1.75 billion to vaccine initiatives, diagnostics and research during the coronavirus pandemic. The foundation ended 2019 with net assets of $43.3 billion, the last full-year financials disclosed on its website. The foundation spent $5 billion in 2019 on programs in the United States and around the world, excluding management costs. From 1994 through 2018, Bill and Melinda Gates gave the foundation more than $36 billion, according to the foundation's website. Warren Buffett has donated more than $29 billion of his fortune to the Gates Foundation since 2006, according to filings. DIVISION OF ASSETS The couple, who have three children, have a custom mansion with a 2020 assessed value of $130.8 million, according to the King County Department of Assessments, on Lake Washington, which lies between Seattle and its eastside suburbs including Redmond, where Microsoft is headquartered. The financial details of their split remain unclear. They are seeking division of joint assets, according to a separation agreement they have reached, filed in King County Superior Court. As one of the few U.S. states with so-called "community property" laws, Washington presumes that most property acquired over the course of a marriage belongs jointly to the spouses and is divided equally in a divorce. The spouses can also agree that certain assets are separate property, meaning they belong to one of them. Inheritances often fall in this category. Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Why did this happen?Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy. Need Help?For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below. Block reference ID: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation) was formed in 2000 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. Its total assets of nearly$48 billion (as of year-end 2018) make the Gates Foundation the largest private philanthropic foundation in the world. [1] The Gates Foundation spends five percent of its endowment on programs and advocacy concerning education, health, poverty, climate change, and “clean energy.” The other 95 percent is invested through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, which is controlled by Bill and Melinda Gates and Democratic Party donor and investor Warren Buffett, who pledged $31 billion to the Foundation in 2006. The Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars to promote and implement the highly controversial national Common Core education standards. The funding for the standards stretched from teachers’ unions and business groups to political advocacy groups, and was embraced by the Obama administration, which eventually hired a number of former Gates Foundation staffers. [2] Gates and the Foundation have also come under scrutiny for purportedly cornering the market on global health initiatives, and encroaching on the territory of public organizations with parallel vision such as the World Health Organization. [3] The Foundation has given more than $82 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network, International Planned Parenthood Worldwide, and Planned Parenthood in both central and western Washington state. [4] The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is the foundation’s “sister” nonprofit, established in 2006 to manage the group’s endowment and investment portfolio. [5] Founding and MissionThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was founded in 1994 as the William H. Gates Foundation. It was created by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda French Gates, and was run by Gates’ father, William H. Gates, Sr., ostensibly to focus on global health. [6] Bill and Melinda Gates founded the Gates Library Foundation in 1997 with the stated goal of bringing internet access and computers to U.S. public libraries. It became the Gates Learning Foundation in 1999 when it broadened its focus to include college readiness. [7] In 2000, the William H. Gates Foundation merged with the Gates Learning Foundation and became known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. [8] Following an infusion of money from billionaire investor Warren Buffet in 2006, the foundation set up a separate Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust to handle foundation assets. [9] The Gates Foundation also reorganized to include global development, global health, and United States divisions. A global policy and development division was added in 2012. [10] Organizational OverviewThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is controlled by three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett. William H. Gates, Sr. is the foundation’s co-chair. [11] The foundation has 1,489 employees and gives to grantees in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as more than 100 countries. [12] The foundation issues grants from an endowment that is handled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust that lists Bill and Melinda Gates as the sole trustees. [13] The foundation has funded $50.1 billion in grants since its inception. [14] Grantmaking areas include: [15]
The foundation’s locations include: [16]
FundingMost of the money for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has come from the Gates’ personal wealth, starting with $94 million in Microsoft stock in 1994 to establish the William H. Gates Foundation. [17] On his 43rd birthday in 1998, Gates gave the foundation $1 billion. [18] In 1999, Gates and his wife Melinda contributed $16 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. [19] Contributions are held in an endowment, which must give away at least five percent of its worth each year. The other 95 percent is invested. [20] From 2000 to 2007, the endowment was managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates’ personal fortune. In 2006, investor Warren Buffett made a lifetime pledge to the foundation of Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at $31 billion. [21] The gift is paid in yearly installments with most recent contribution of $3.6 billion on July 1, 2019. [22] To date, Buffett has contributed $24.5 billion to the BMGF. [23] In 2006, the foundation trustees restructured and created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust to hold donated investment assets from Bill and Melinda Gates, and annual contributions from Warren Buffett. [24] In turn, the trust funds foundation programs and grants. [25] Tax documents list Bill and Melinda Gates as the sole trustees of the Trust. [26] In 2020, the Gates Foundation received nearly $12.7 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock from Warren Buffett. [27] LeadershipCo-Chairs and TrusteesThe Gates Foundation has three trustees, according to its latest IRS Form 990 from 2018. [28] Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, are co-chairs and trustees for the Gates Foundation, as well as the foundation’s main philanthropists. Billionaire and philanthropist Warren Buffett is a Gates Foundation trustee. In addition, William “Bill” H. Gates, Sr., a retired business executive and father of Bill Gates, is a Gates Foundation co-chair, an attorney, and the former head of Planned Parenthood. [29] Chief Executive OfficerMark Suzman is the chief executive officer of the Gates Foundation, a position he’s held since February 2020. Prior to that, the South Africa-born Suzman was director of Global Development Policy and Advocacy for the Gates Foundation from 2007 to 2020. [30] In 2018, Suzman reported $995,462 in total compensation in his role as director of Global Development Policy and Advocacy. [31] Susan “Sue” Desmond-Hellmann was the Gates Foundation’s chief executive officer from 2014 to January 2020, when she retired from the organization. Desmond-Hellmann is an oncologist, career healthcare nonprofit officer, and a former Facebook board member. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation in 2014, she was chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco and president of product development for Genentech, a biotech firm. [32] In 2018, Desmond-Hellman reported total compensation of $1,489,778 as CEO of the foundation. [33] FundingDonors to the Gates FoundationAlso see Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust (Nonprofit) The Gates Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation required to report its donors. Much of the foundation’s donations come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, a separate but related foundation created in 2006 to manage its “sister” group’s endowment assets and investment portfolio. [34] In 2018, the Gates Foundation’s largest donors were the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, which gave the foundation nearly $5.6 billion, and Bill Gates, who gave it nearly $2.5 million. [35] Grant InitiativesEducationIn June 2018, Business Insider cited a RAND Corporation report to note that a $1 billion education initiative that the Gates Foundation backed had “largely failed to help students.” [36] The Gates Foundation had chosen RAND Corporation, a nonprofit think tank, to evaluate the education initiative. The RAND report stated that, “[o]verall. . . the initiative did not achieve its goals for student achievement or graduation, particularly for LIM [low-income minority] students.” [37] PovertyIn May 2018, the Gates Foundation announced its plans to give $158 million to the Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, which is connected to the left-of-center Urban Institute. [38] EnvironmentBill Gates believes that divesting in fossil fuel has little to no impact on tackling climate change. Gates told the Financial Times, “Divestment, to date, probably has reduced about zero tones of emissions. It’s not like you’ve capital-starved [the] people making steel and gasoline.” [39] Gates believes that a more effective method is to invest in businesses and technologies that increase innovations towards reducing carbon emissions. He commented, “When I’m taking billions of dollars and creating breakthrough energy ventures and funding only companies who, if they’re successful, reduce greenhouse gases by 0.5 per cent, then I actually do see a cause and effect type thing.” [40] Political ActivityContributions to Political Candidates, Campaigns and PACs by EmployeesFoundations are not permitted by tax law to contribute to candidates for election. However, the Center For Responsive Politics lists contributions from individuals who list the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as their employer: Those contributions total $1,006,305 to political candidates and political action committees (PACs) since 2000. Of those contributions, 88 percent, or $106,212, were made to Democratic candidates and committees. [41] The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also a donor to the political nonprofit Demos, a progressive policy research group. Since 2009, the Gates foundation has contributed at least $850,000 to the nonprofit. [42] Contributions to “Dark Money” Advocacy GroupsIn 2020, the Gates Foundation contributed $126,754,593 to the New Venture Fund, part of a multi-billion-dollar “dark money” nonprofit network created and run by Arabella Advisors, a consulting in Washington, D.C. [43] The New Venture Fund specializes in passing grants from its donors to left-of-center political causes and activist groups as well as sponsoring new “pop-up” groups, or websites dedicated to pushing left-of-center policy while disguised as independent activist nonprofits. [44] Common CoreIn 2014, the Washington Post characterized the involvement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in establishing national Common Core education standards as a “swift revolution,” with the Foundation not only bankrolling the development but also building “political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes.” [45] Starting in 2008, hundreds of millions of dollars in Gates Foundation money went to a broad range of organizations including the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, policy groups including liberals (most notably the Center for American Progress) and conservatives (such as the Thomas B. Fordham Institute) and state and local groups. The “revolution” received further support from the Obama administration, which was populated with former Gates Foundation staffers and associates. [46] The Gates Foundation provided seed money the non-profit Teaching Channel website and Teaching Channel television program to promote Common Core teaching instructions. [47] The effort was launched in September 2011 with programs airing on public television stations. [48] By 2010, 45 states and the District of Columbia had fully adopted the Gates-backed Common Core State Standards. By 2014 Common Core came under increasing criticism even among former supporters on the left. [49] A 2016 report found that Common Core was not preparing students very well for college or a career. [50] In May, 2016, then-CEO Sue Desmond-Hellman admitted in an annual letter that the foundation had made mistakes with Common Core. [51] The letter prompted a Los Angeles Times editorial titled, “Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldn’t be setting America’s public school agenda.” The editorial criticized the Gates Foundation of taking on an “unhealthy amount of power in the setting of education policy,” landing former foundation staff members high positions in the U.S. Department of Education and head of the Los Angeles Unified School District. [52] CriticismsToo Few TrusteesSome have criticized the Gates Foundation by pointing to the fact there are three trustees deciding how billions of dollars controlled by the world’s largest philanthropic foundation are spent. Pablo Eisenberg of Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute told NBC News, “That is much too small and narrow a board to run a foundation whose combined assets will one day exceed the budgets of all but 30 percent of the countries in the world,” which he said “offers little protection to America’s taxpayers or the national interest.” Diana Aviv of the Independent Sector coalition of 600 charities said larger boards are wiser and provide necessary “checks and balances” required for good decision-making and oversight. [53] The Gates Foundation has faced criticism from the left for breaking its social commitments. A Los Angeles Times investigation published in 2007 found that $8.7 billion, or 41 percent of Gates Foundation assets, were invested in companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy. [54] These include companies responsible for heavy air pollution in the Niger Delta to pharmaceutical firms whose pricing policies have hampered access to antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients in developing nations, a primary Gates Foundation focus area. [55] Too Much InfluenceThe Gates Foundation has been criticized for too-broad funding through an interconnected network of organizations and individuals across academia and the NGO and business sectors which University College London Dr. David McCoy said in 2012, “allows it to leverage influence through a kind of ‘group-think’ in international health.” And in 2008 the head of malaria research for the World Health Organization accused a s-called Gates Foundation “cartel” of suppressing diversity of scientific opinion, claiming the organization was “accountable to no-one other than itself.” [56] A 2016 report from the far-left British activist organization Global Justice Now analyzed Gates Foundation programs and concluded the foundation’s giving is far from a neutral charitable strategy, but instead an ideological commitment to “promote neoliberal economic policies and corporate globalization.” [57] The report authors called on an international investigation into Gates Foundation spending. [58] Lawsuit by Former EmployeeTodd Pierce, a former Gates Foundation chief digital officer, filed a lawsuit against the foundation in April 2017, alleging he was misled about the scope of his job when he was recruited, and that he was fired for clashing with executives who didn’t believe in his new role. The complaint stated, “During his exit interviews with several co-workers, they admitted that the job he was expected to perform was not the job he had been promised and that he hadn’t been told the truth about his position.” [59] How much money is in the Bill Gates foundation?If those assets continue to gain value, Gates may find himself with even more than $113 billion to give away. Historically, Gates has donated shares of Microsoft and other investments directly to charities like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which keeps the bulk of its now nearly $70 billion endowment in stocks.
What is the net at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?Unveiled in February, “Impatient Optimist” is an aerial net sculpture (120 feet long, 80 feet wide, 40 feet deep) created by Massachusetts-based artist Janet Echelman, who knows her way around a giant net—she's installed similarly stunning works across the globe, including at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C.
Who owns Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?How the Foundation Trust works. The Foundation Trust holds the endowment, including the annual installments of Warren Buffett's gift, and funds the foundation. Bill and Melinda are the trustees for the Foundation Trust, and the endowment is managed, as it has been for almost three decades, by Cascade Management Company ...
How much has Bill Gates donated to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?Since 1994, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates have contributed $39 billion to the foundation. Since 2000, the foundation has spent $79.2 billion. Tom Tierney, board member, said, “Philanthropy is driving unprecedented impact on issues ranging from global health to gender equality to social justice.
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Bill and melinda gates foundation net worth
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