Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates announced this week that he is planning to donate $20 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation while restating his pledge to give away “virtually all of my wealth to the foundation” and eventually drop off the list of the world’s richest people altogether.
I Have an Obligation to Return My Resources to Society, Says Bill Gates
Gates announced his plans in a Twitter post on Wednesday, tweeting, “I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact on reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up at this moment too.”
I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) July 13, 2022
In a blog post on Wednesday, Gates wrote that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to boost its annual spending by 50% — to $9 billion by 2026, up from its current $6 billion. “It is now clear that the need in all the areas where we work is greater than ever. The great crises of our time require all of us to do more,” Gates wrote, noting recent “huge global setbacks” varying from the Covid-19 pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Foundation Has Impacted the World for the Better
The Gates Foundation has undeniably impacted the world for the better already. In a 2008 study, Rice University researchers found that Bill Gates’ personal foundation helped prompt greater financial support at the National Institutes of Health for research into vaccines for malaria and tuberculosis, and other global diseases like asthma and heart disease.
In addition to this, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation played a key role in developing Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — a global health program founded in 2000 that provides immunization to poor countries and has helped vaccinate nearly 1.2 billion people against diseases like Covid-19, polio, and measles.
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