Bill Gates pledges to give away his fortune in next 20 years

Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates has pledged to give away virtually all his wealth over the next 20 years through his charitable foundation, which is to wind down in 2045.

The decision will enable the Gates Foundation to accelerate spending to more than $200bn over the period, more than double the amount spent since its inception 25 years ago. The foundation had originally planned to wind down its work 20 years after Gates’ death.

The announcement comes as the world reels from US President Donald Trump’s abrupt termination of foreign aid and research grants. At the same time, many European countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have announced that they will scale back overseas assistance to increase defence spending.

“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them. There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” Gates wrote in a post on his website.

The Gates Foundation was established in 2000 by Gates and his former wife, Melinda. With support from billionaire Warren Buffett, it has given away more than $100bn over the past 25 years.

It helped create the vaccine alliance Gavi to expand immunisation for children in the world’s poorest countries, as well as the Global Fund to Fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and has collaborated with the Rotary Fund to revive efforts to eradicate polio.

It has also provided grants to scientists working on infectious diseases and to researchers developing tools to improve nutrition, and child and maternal health.

The Gates Foundation estimates it has contributed to saving 82-million lives through its support of Gavi and the Global Fund. It has also helped develop more than 100 innovations — including vaccines, diagnostics and treatments — to meet the needs of people living in low and middle income countries.

Gates said the foundation aimed to make further headway in reducing preventable child and maternal deaths, eradicate polio and Guinea worm disease, and improve education to lift more people out of poverty.

“By accelerating our giving, my hope is we can put the world on a path to ending preventable deaths of moms and babies and lifting millions of people out of poverty,” he wrote.

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said the decision to ramp up spending over the next 20 years would ensure “steady, predictable and reliable” funding for the causes it supported, but philanthropic organisations could not fill the void left by governments cutting back on foreign aid.

kahnt@businesslive.co.za