organization jump to navigation search bill & melinda gates foundation abbreviation bmgf formation 2000 ; 16 years ago 2000 1 founders bill gates melinda gates type non operating private foundation irs exemption status 501 c 3 2 purpose healthcare education ending poverty headquarters seattle washington united states area served worldwide method donations and grants key people bill gates co founder and co chair melinda gates co founder and co chair william h. gates sr. co chair susan desmond hellmann ceo endowment us 44.3 billion as of 31 december 2014 update 3 employees 1 382 3 website gatesfoundation.org formerly called william h. gates foundation 1994 1999 bill & melinda gates foundation or the gates foundation abbreviated as bmgf is the largest private foundation in the world founded by bill and melinda gates . it was launched in 2000 and is said to be the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world . 4 the primary aims of the foundation are globally to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty and in america to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology . the foundation based in seattle washington is controlled by its three trustees bill gates melinda gates and warren buffett . other principal officers include co chair william h. gates sr. and chief executive officer susan desmond hellmann . 5 it had an endowment of us 44.3 billion as of 31 december 2014 update . 3 the scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in venture philanthropy 6 though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations . 7 in 2007 its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in america and warren buffett the first . 8 as of may 16 2013 bill gates had donated us 28 billion to the foundation . 1 9 contents 1 history 1.1 warren buffett donation 2 activities 2.1 program areas and grant database 2.2 open access policy 2.3 funds for grants in developing countries 3 financials 3.1 bill & melinda gates foundation trust investments 4 global development division 4.1 financial services for the poor 4.2 agricultural development 4.3 water sanitation and hygiene 4.3.1 sanitation technology innovations 4.3.2 examples of transformative technologies research 4.4 other global special initiatives 5 global health division 6 united states division 6.1 de funding abortion 6.2 libraries 6.3 education 6.4 pacific northwest 7 lifespan 8 awards 9 see also 10 notes and references 11 external links history edit front building bill and melinda gates june 2009 in 1997 the foundation was formed as the william h. gates foundation . 10 during the foundation s following years funding grew to us 2 billion . on june 15 2006 gates announced his plans to transition out of a day to day role with microsoft effective july 31 2008 11 to allow him to devote more time to working with the foundation . rear building in 2005 bill and melinda gates along with the musician bono were named by time as persons of the year 2005 for their charitable work . 12 in the case of bill and melinda gates the work referenced was that of this foundation . detail of the facade of the visitor center in april 2010 gates was invited to visit and speak at the massachusetts institute of technology where he asked the students to take on the hard problems of the world in their futures . he also explained the nature and philosophy of his philanthropic endeavors . 13 14 in 2010 the foundation s founders started the commission on education of health professionals for the 21st century entitled transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world . 15 a 2011 survey of grantees found that many believed the foundation did not make its goals and strategies clear and sometimes did not understand those of the grantees ; that the foundation s decision and grantmaking procedures were too opaque ; and that its communications could be more consistent and responsive . the foundation s response was to improve the clarity of its explanations make orientation calls to grantees upon awarding grants tell grantees who their foundation contact is give timely feedback when they receive a grantee report and establish a way for grantees to provide anonymous or attributed feedback to the foundation . 16 the foundation also launched a podcast series . 17 in 2013 hillary clinton launched a partnership between the foundation and the bill hillary & chelsea clinton foundation to gather and study data on the progress of women and girls around the world since the 1995 united nations fourth world conference on women in beijing . 18 19 this is called no ceilings the full participation project . 18 19 warren buffett donation edit on june 25 2006 warren buffett then the world s richest person estimated worth of us 62 billion as of april 16 2008 pledged to give the foundation approximately 10 million berkshire hathaway class b shares spread over multiple years through annual contributions with the first year s donation of 500 000 shares being worth approximately us 1.5 billion . 20 buffett set conditions so that these contributions do not simply increase the foundation s endowment but effectively work as a matching contribution doubling the foundation s annual giving buffett s gift came with three conditions for the gates foundation bill or melinda gates must be alive and active in its administration ; it must continue to qualify as a charity ; and each year it must give away an amount equal to the previous year s berkshire gift plus an additional amount equal to 5 percent of net assets . buffett gave the foundation two years to abide by the third requirement . 21 22 23 the gates foundation received 5 % 500 000 of the shares in july 2006 and will receive 5 % of the remaining earmarked shares in the july of each following year 475 000 in 2007 451 250 in 2008 . 24 25 in july 2013 buffet announced another donation of his company s class b this time in the amount worth 2 billion is going to the bill and melinda gates foundation . 26 activities edit program areas and grant database edit to maintain its status as a charitable foundation the bill and melinda gates foundation must donate funds equal to at least 5 percent of its assets each year . 27 as of april 2014 the foundation is organized into four program areas under chief executive officer susan desmond hellmann who sets strategic priorities monitors results and facilitates relationships with key partners 28 global development division global health division united states division global policy & advocacy division 29 the foundation maintains an online database of grants on its website which includes for each grant the name of the grantee organization the purpose of the grant and the amount . 30 this database is publicly available . open access policy edit in november 2014 the bill and melinda gates foundation announced that they are adopting an open access oa policy for publications and data to enable the unrestricted access and reuse of all peer reviewed published research funded by the foundation including any underlying data sets . 31 this move has been widely applauded by those who are working in the area of capacity building and knowledge sharing . citation needed its terms have been called the most stringent among similar oa policies . 32 as of january 1 2015 their open access policy is effective for all new agreements . 33 funds for grants in developing countries edit the following table lists the gates foundation s committed funding as recorded in their international aid transparency initiative iati publications . the gates foundation announced in october 2013 that it would join the iati . 34 the iati publications only include a subset of gates foundation grants mainly excluding grants to developed countries and contain few grants before 2009 which are excluded from the table . 35 the gates foundation states on the iati registry site that reporting starts from 2009 and excludes grants related to our us programs and grants that if published could harm our employees grantees partners or the beneficiaries of our work . 36 committed funding us millions dac 5 digit sector 37 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 sum infectious disease control 256.9 720.3 462.8 528.7 1248.3 1271.8 1097.5 5586.4 malaria control 324.5 101.7 133.6 75.5 302.4 377.6 140.8 1456.1 std control including hiv aids 175.5 26.9 291.4 199.7 184.4 264.4 165.7 1308.0 tuberculosis control 69.2 211.1 59.5 273.9 135.3 100.1 244.8 1094.0 reproductive health care 173.8 66.8 77.4 165.2 84.9 207.6 130.0 905.8 agricultural research 84.7 27.8 196.2 192.8 207.1 14.7 83.9 807.2 family planning 104.5 21.2 21.4 49.3 165.0 145.8 181.7 688.9 health policy and administrative management 119.3 14.3 145.7 75.5 61.1 113.4 130.3 659.5 agricultural development 5.2 30.0 0.0 35.0 0.0 325.1 86.1 481.3 agricultural policy and administrative management 72.9 30.0 77.5 77.1 86.2 19.7 96.9 460.3 promotion of development awareness 47.2 45.0 35.5 41.7 124.4 61.7 80.7 436.2 basic health care 22.3 23.9 43.7 73.2 1.7 45.6 206.3 416.7 basic nutrition 19.2 15.7 40.9 51.5 63.7 55.9 148.2 395.2 basic sanitation 10.1 34.9 82.9 74.9 59.1 48.7 64.9 375.5 financial policy and administrative management 29.0 18.4 9.8 8.9 70.1 32.9 53.4 222.5 other 487.5 273.8 2208.9 260.2 332.1 433.3 2195.7 6191.5 total 2001.9 1662.0 3887.2 2183.0 3125.9 3518.4 5106.6 21485.1 the following table lists the top receiving organizations to which the gates foundation has committed funding between 2009 and 2015 . the table again only includes grants recorded in the gates foundation s iati publications . 35 organization amount us millions gavi alliance 3 152.8 world health organization 1 535.1 the global fund to fight aids tuberculosis and malaria 777.6 path 635.2 united states fund for unicef 461.1 the rotary foundation of rotary international 400.1 international bank for reconstruction and development 340.0 global alliance for tb drug development 338.4 medicines for malaria venture 334.1 path vaccine solutions 333.4 unicef headquarters 277.6 johns hopkins university 265.4 aeras 227.6 clinton health access initiative inc 199.5 international development association 174.7 care 166.2 world health organization nigeria country office 166.1 agence fran aise de d veloppement 165.0 centro internacional de mejoramiento de ma z y trigo 153.1 cornell university 146.7 alliance for a green revolution in africa 146.4 united nations foundation 143.0 university of washington foundation 138.2 foundation for the national institutes of health 136.2 emory university 123.2 university of california san francisco 123.1 population services international 122.5 university of oxford 117.8 international food policy research institute 110.7 international institute of tropical agriculture 104.8 financials edit the foundation explains on its website that its trustees divided the organization into two entities the bill & melinda gates foundation foundation and the bill & melinda gates foundation trust trust . the foundation section based in seattle us focuses on improving health and alleviating extreme poverty and its trustees are bill and melinda gates and warren buffett . the trust section manages the investment assets and transfer proceeds to the foundation as necessary to achieve the foundation s charitable goals it holds the assets of bill and melinda gates who are the sole trustees and receives contributions from buffett . 38 the foundation posts its audited financial statements and 990 pf forms on the financials section of its website as they become available . at the end of 2012 the foundation registered a cash sum of us 4 998 000 down from us 10 810 000 at the end of 2011 . unrestricted net assets at the end of 2012 were worth us 31 950 613 000 while total assets were worth us 37 176 777 000 . 39 bill & melinda gates foundation trust investments edit the foundation appears to have the following stakes in investments 40 arcos dorados holdings 2.36 % stake autonation inc. 1.56 % stake berkshire