Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

About the Foundation
Mission: On its website states that "There are two simple values that lie at the core of the foundation’s work: All lives—no matter where they are being led—have equal value; To whom much has been given, much is expected. Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to reduce inequities and improve lives around the world."

Program areas: In developing countries, it focuses on improving health, reducing extreme poverty, and increasing access to technology in public libraries. In the United States, the foundation seeks to ensure that all people have access to a great education and to technology in public libraries. In its local region, it focuses on improving the lives of low-income families.

Facts and Figures
Statistics:
 * Number of employees: approximately 980
 * Asset trust endowment: $33.5 billion
 * Total grant commitments since inception: $26.19 billion
 * Total 2010 grant payments: $2.6 billion

Funding from 1994-Present:
 * Global Development: $3,613,000,000
 * Global Health: $15,271,000,000
 * United States: $6,236,000,000
 * Charitable Sector Support: $71,000,000
 * Employee Matching Gifts & Sponsorships: $21,000,000
 * Family Interest Grants: $982,000,000
 * Total: 26,194,000,000

==Controversies

Support for the American Legislative Exchange Council
In November 2011, the Gates Foundation made a $376,635 grant to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which it claims was "to educate and engage its membership on more efficient state budget approaches to drive greater student outcomes, as well as educate them on beneficial ways to recruit, retain, evaluate and compensate effective teaching based upon merit and achievement." In April 2012, during a public campaign by public interest groups targeting ALEC supporters and urging them to cut ties with ALEC, during which the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) specifically targeted the foundation, Gates spokesman Chris Williams told the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call, that it does not plan to make future grants to the conservative nonprofit and specifically noted that the foundation was never a dues-paying member of ALEC. Williams also told BuzzFeed that the foundation does not plan to withdraw that grant "for now. . . . We have already paid out a significant portion of it," he said.

Investment in Monsanto, BP and Other Controversial Corporations
Concerns have been raised about the decision of the Gates to invest in Monsanto. Reportedly, the shares are valued at $23 million. Monsanto has been involved in numerous controversial agri-business activities, including genetic engineering of seeds and efforts to use a "terminator" gene to control germination.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also a major investor in BP, with nearly 43 million shares, a company whose lax regulatory record has been seen as a big factor in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Nation reported that as of December 2012, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had at least $958.6 million invested in BP and ExxonMobil.

The Foundation has also given $300,000 to the US-based geoengineering research body Silver Lining, which is developing machines to convert seawater into microscopic particles to be sprayed into clouds, to reflect more sunlight back into space in an effort to mitigate the worst effects of global warming. The Gates-backed sea trial would be the largest known attempt to geoengineer the climate so far, reported to be conducted over an area of 10,000km2. Campaigners say such a large-scale trial is 'risky' and that a global ban on geoengineering experiments should be put in place until regulations governing the sector can be introduced. Bill Gates has also given $4.5 million to Harvard climate researcher David Keith of Carbon Engineering to fund research on planet-cooling ideas.

Promotion of Genetic Engineering
The Gates Foundation promotes and funds genetic engineering projects. For example, the foundation's Grand Challenge #9 is to "Create a Full Range of Optimal, Bioavailable Nutrients in a Single Staple Plant Species." While the foundation would accept projects using conventional plant breeding techniques, the four projects they are funding all use biotechnology: Golden Rice, genetically engineered cassava , sorghum , and bananas.

For more information, see the page on Gates Foundation Grants for the Second Green Revolution.

Funding controversial education organization Teach for America
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is among the numerous right-wing foundation and corporate donors to the non-profit education organization Teach for America. Teach for America has received criticism from the Center for Media and Democracy and others as it is "backed by a number of right-wing interests that have bankrolled the conservative push to privatize, voucherize, and generally dismantle free and universal public education in America". Between 2011 and 2012, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated between $1 million and $5 million to Teach for America.

Personnel
The foundation's leadership includes:
 * Bill Gates, Co-chair and Trustee
 * Melinda French Gates, Co-chair and Trustee
 * William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair
 * Warren Buffett, Trustee
 * Jeff Raikes, Chief Executive Officer
 * Christopher Elias, President, Global Development Program
 * Allan C. Golston, President, United States Program
 * Trevor Mundel, President, Global Health Program
 * Martha Choe, Chief Administrative Officer, Foundation Operations
 * Connie Collingsworth, General Counsel and Secretary, Foundation Operations
 * Richard Henriques, Chief Financial Officer, Foundation Operations
 * Kate James, Chief Communications Officer, Foundation Operations
 * Geoff Lamb, Managing Director, Public Policy, Foundation Operations
 * Dale Christian, Chief Information Officer
 * Patty Stonesifer, Senior Advisor to the Trustees

Global Development Leadership Team:
 * Christopher Elias, President
 * Sam Dryden, Director, Agricultural Development (Dryden replaced Rajiv Shah in 2010.)
 * Deborah Jacobs, Director, Global Libraries
 * Frank Rijsberman, Director, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
 * Kellie Sloan, Director of Operations
 * Mark Suzman, Director of Policy, Advocacy, and Special Initiatives
 * Rodger Voorhies, Interim Director, Financial Services for the Poor

Global Health Program Leadership Team:
 * Trevor Mundel, President
 * Ashok Alexander, Director, Avahan India AIDS Initiative
 * Girindre Beeharry, Director, Global Health Strategy
 * Stefano Bertozzi, Director, HIV
 * Gary L. Darmstadt, Director, Family Health
 * William Foege, Senior Fellow
 * Ernest Loevinsohn, Director, Global Health Policy and Advocacy
 * Candy Marshall, Director of Operations
 * Regina Rabinovich, Director, Infectious Diseases
 * Cheryl Scott, Senior Advisor
 * Chris Wilson, Director, Discovery & Translational Sciences
 * Ray Yip, Director, China Program

United States Program Leadership Team:
 * Allan C. Golston, President
 * David Bley, Director, Pacific Northwest Initiative
 * Diane de Ryss, Director of Operations
 * Hilary Pennington, Director of Education, Postsecondary Success, and Special Initiatives
 * Vicki Phillips, Director of Education, College Ready
 * Stefanie Sanford, Director of Policy & Advocacy

Advisory Panels
Global Development Program Advisory Panel (Accessed December 2007)


 * Rajat Gupta (Chair), Chairman of the Board, India School of Business; former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
 * Amina J. Ibrahim, Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals, The Presidency, Nigeria
 * Kavita Nandini Ramdas, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women
 * Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University; former President, Harvard University; former Secretary, United States Treasury
 * Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; former President of Mexico
 * Philip Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History, University of Virginia; former Counselor, U.S. Department of State

U.S. Program Advisory Panel (Accessed December 2007):


 * Ann Fudge (Chair), former Chairman and CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands
 * Henry Cisneros, Chairman and CEO, CityView; former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
 * Christopher Edley, Dean, Boalt School of Law, University of California at Berkeley
 * Edward Glaeser, Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
 * Walter Massey, President Emeritus, Morehouse College

Former Staff

 * Richard Klausner, head of the global health program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
 * Jacquelline Cobb Fuller

Former leadership (as of 2010):
 * Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President, Global Development Program through 2011
 * Tachi Yamada, President, Global Health Program
 * Franci Phelan. Chief Human Resources Officer, Foundation Operations

Former leadership (as of 2008):
 * Patty Stonesifer, Chief Executive Officer
 * Dr. Tadataka “Tachi” Yamada, President, Global Health Program
 * Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President, Global Development Program
 * Alex Friedman, Chief Financial Officer
 * Martha Choe, Chief Administrative Officer
 * Heidi Sinclair, Chief Communications Officer

Former leadership (as of 2006):
 * Patty Stonesifer, CEO
 * Dr. Tadataka Yamada, President, Global Health (Tachi Yamada)
 * Sylvia M. Mathews, President, Global Development
 * Cheryl Scott, Chief Operating Officer
 * Roy Steiner, Deputy Director, Agricultural Develoment

Former leadership (as of 1999) Executive Committee
 * Founders - Bill Gates III and Melinda Gates
 * Co-Chairs - William H. Gates, Sr. and Patty Stonesifer
 * Richard Akeroyd, Executive Director, Libraries and Public Access to Information
 * Jack Faris, Ph.D., Director of Community Strategies
 * Allan C. Golston, CPA, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer
 * Terrence Meersman, Senior Program Officer
 * Gordon W. Perkin, M.D., Director, Global Health Program
 * Tom Vander Ark, Executive Director, Education

Past Grantees

 * 2006 Grantees, per website
 * 2005 Grantees, per website
 * 2000-2004 grantees, per website
 * 1994-1999 Grantees, per website

Contact Information

 * PO Box 23350
 * Seattle, WA 98102
 * Phone: (206) 709-3100
 * Email: info At gatesfoundation.org
 * Web: http://gatesfoundation.org/default.htm

Related Sourcewatch

 * Winner of the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize
 * Gates Institute
 * Second Green Revolution
 * Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
 * Monsanto's Use of Humanitarian Projects to Open Global Markets to GMOs
 * Greg Shaw
 * Vicki Phillips
 * African Economic Research Consortium
 * GAVI Alliance
 * Rajiv J. Shah
 * Prabhu L. Pingali
 * Regina Rabinovich
 * INDEPTH
 * David Fleming
 * Joe Cerrell, Director, Global Health Policy & Advocacy
 * David Lane
 * Louis Boorstin
 * Michael Madnick
 * Vincent Ahonkhai - staff
 * Trevor Neilson - former Director of Public Affairs and Director of Special Projects
 * Mary Joyce
 * Jacqueline E. Darroch - former associate director for reproductive health
 * Robert B. Horsch
 * Roy Steiner
 * Teach for America

Annual Reports

 * 2009 Annual Report
 * 2008 Annual Report
 * 2007 Annual Report
 * 2006 Annual Report
 * 2005 Annual Report
 * 2004 Annual Report
 * 2003 Annual Report
 * 2002 Annual Report
 * 2001 Annual Report
 * 2000 Annual Report
 * 1999 Annual Report
 * 1998 Annual Report

External Articles

 * Ashley Fent and Phil Bereano, "Op-ed: Gates Foundation should step away from funding genetically modified crops in Africa, Seattle Times, November 4, 2012.
 * "Our Investment Philosophy: A note from chief operating officer Cheryl ScottView printable version", Media Statement, January 11, 2007.
 * Patty Stonesifer, "A foundation states its case", Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2007.
 * Mike Ludwig, "Monsanto and Gates Foundation Push GE Crops on Africa," Truthout, July 12, 2011.
 * Donna Gordon Blankinship, "Gates Foundation spends $1.7B on farming in Africa," San Diego Union Tribune, June 1, 2011.
 * John Vidal, "Innocents abroad?", Guardian (UK), October 16, 2003.
 * Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Rick Lyman, "In Buffett Gift, Challenge for Gates," International Herald Tribune, June 26, 2006. (Syndicated from the New York Times).
 * Timothy L. O'Brien and Stephanie Saul, "Buffett to Give Bulk of His Fortune to Gates Charity", New York Times, June 26, 2006.
 * "Warren Buffet to give $37B to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation," Associated Press, June 25, 2006.
 * Donna Gordon Blankinship, "Foundation says Gates, Wife Involved", Associated Press Writer. June 15, 2006.
 * Eric Holt-Gimenez, Miguel A. Altieri, and Peter Rosset, "Ten Reasons Why the Rockefeller and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations’ Alliance for Another Green Revolution Will Not Solve the Problems of Poverty and Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa", Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, October 2006, Food First Policy Brief No. 12.
 * Ted Nace, "Minnesota to Bill Gates: No new coal!" Gristmill, May 4, 2008
 * Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon, "Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation", Los Angeles Times, January 7, 2007.
 * Charles Pillier, "Money clashes with mission: The Gates Foundation invests heavily in sub-prime lenders and other businesses that undercut its good works", Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2007.
 * Charles Pillier, "Gates Foundation to reassess investments: A decision to review its holdings for their social effects could lead others to rethink their policies", Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2007.
 * Charles Pillier, "Gates Foundation to weigh new limits", Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2007.
 * Charles Piller, "Gates Foundation to keep its investment approach", Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2007.
 * Andrew Jack, "Gates in snub to ethical investing", The Australian, January 15, 2007.
 * F. William Engdahl, "Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic: Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t, Global Research, December 4, 2007.
 * Michael Barker, "Bill Gates, Philanthropy, and Social Engineering? (Part 1 of 3)", Znet, July 16, 2008.
 * Michael Barker, "Bill Gates Engineers Another Green Revolution (Part 3 of 3)", Znet, August 8, 2008.
 * Philip E. Kovacs, H.K. Christie, "The Gates' Foundation and the Future of U.S. Public Education: A Call for Scholars to Counter Misinformation Campaigns", Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, Volume 6, Number 2 (December 2008).
 * Joanne Barkan, "Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools", Dissent, Winter 2011.
 * P. Sainath, "Gates, Buffet & the Art of Giving: Karma for Billionaires", Counterpunch, March 15, 2011. Sainath is the author of the 2002 book Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts
 * Mike Zapler, Bill Gates seeks Africa farm aid, Politico, May 25, 2011.
 * Bill Berkowitz, "Gates Foundation Enables ALEC to Privatize Public Education", Z Magazine, February 2012.
 * Paul Haeder "When a Non-Profit Gets in Bed with the Enemy: The Mogul of Microsoft Goes for the Agent Orange Guys", Dissident Voice, May 2, 2012.
 * Harriet Rowan, Wisconsin Budget Includes $1 Million Taxpayer Giveaway for Well-Funded Teach for America, PR Watch, June 27, 2013.