{"id":5628,"date":"2025-05-08T20:41:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/08\/gates-foundation-will-spend-down-all-of-its-fund-and-close-by-2045\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T20:41:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:41:44","slug":"gates-foundation-will-spend-down-all-of-its-fund-and-close-by-2045","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/08\/gates-foundation-will-spend-down-all-of-its-fund-and-close-by-2045\/","title":{"rendered":"Gates Foundation Will Spend Down All of Its Fund and Close by 2045"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates will sunset his foundation in two decades. Justin Tallis-WPA Pool\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a>, Bill Gates<\/a> is announcing plans for its closure. The foundation, which has grown into the world\u2019s largest charitable organization, will shut its doors by 2045 after spending down $200 billion of both its endowment and the remainder of Gates\u2019 personal fortune, the philanthropist said in a blog post published today (May 8). Gates\u2019 net worth currently stands at $112.5 billion. The foundation\u2019s endowment stood at $77 billion at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOver the next two decades, we will double our giving<\/a>,\u201d wrote Gates, who will turn 70 in October. \u201cThere are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 2000 by the Microsoft<\/a> co-founder and his former wife, Melinda French Gates<\/a>, the foundation has distributed more than $100 billion to charitable causes. The couple have personally contributed over $60 billion, with an additional $40 billion donated by Warren Buffett<\/a>. Over the next 20 years, the foundation will also receive the remaining 99 percent of Gates\u2019 personal fortune.<\/p>\n

Gates and French Gates had originally planned for it to wind down within 50 years of their deaths.<\/a> But citing Andrew Carnegie<\/a>\u2019s famous 1889 warning that \u201cthe man who dies thus rich dies disgraced,\u201d Gates now believes accelerating that timeline is the right move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have spent a lot of time thinking about that quote lately,\u201d wrote Gates. \u201cPeople will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that \u2018he died rich\u2019 will not be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before it closes on Dec. 31, 2045, the foundation plans to intensify its focus on core initiatives. These include eliminating preventable deaths of mothers and children, alleviating poverty, and combating diseases such as polio, guinea worm, malaria, HIV and AIDS, measles and tuberculosis.<\/p>\n

The largest \u201csunset\u201d foundation<\/h3>\n

A foundation with a set expiration date is far from typical\u2014especially one as massive as the Gates Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA relatively small percentage, I\u2019m going to say less than 10 percent in terms of the number of foundations, are set up to be \u2018sunset\u2019 foundations,\u2019 Leslie Lenkowsky<\/a>, professor emeritus at Indiana University\u2019s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, told Observer. \u201cThere\u2019s no question at all that the Gates Foundation is going to be by far the largest foundation ever to sunset,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Foundations built to last indefinitely may benefit from more time to pursue long-term goals, but those designed with a clear end date can often move faster, take bolder risks and avoid the bureaucratic inertia that tends to accumulate over time, according to Lenkowsky.<\/p>\n

Gates seems to agree. \u201cIt allows us to do a lot more because we\u2019re not trying to steward our money for some weird legacy thing<\/a>,\u201d the billionaire told The New York Times in an interview published today. \u201cIf we were trying to be a forever foundation, instead of being able to spend $9 billion a year, we\u2019d have to drop down to spending like $6 billion a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with an expanded budget, the Gates Foundation won\u2019t be able to fully compensate for recent government cuts to international aid. Gates, who has previously criticized the Trump administration\u2019s reductions in global health funding through agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was especially direct in his comments about Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s role in further diminishing that support. Musk, as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has overseen a sharp decline in foreign aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could go on to be a great philanthropist,\u201d Gates told The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cIn the meantime, the world\u2019s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world\u2019s poorest children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Musk\u2014or any billionaire\u2014will step in to fill the void left by Gates remains to be seen. But the coming closure of the Gates Foundation will mark more than the end of an institution; it signals the close of a distinct chapter in philanthropy. \u201cClosing the Gates Foundation really brings closer an end of an era for philanthropy,\u201d said Lenkowsky.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Bill<\/p><\/div>\n