Gates Foundation: Bill Gates donates 20 billion US dollars to good causes

Microsoft founder Bill Gates was number one for years and is currently still the fourth richest person in the world. Now he just donates 20 billion US dollars for charitable purposes to the Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation and wants to donate almost his entire fortune to the organization until his death. In 2020, Gates had resigned from his post on the Microsoft board.

Bill Gates with rich donations

“Looking ahead, my plan is to donate all my wealth to the foundation,” Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed on his blog GatesNotes. Further, he said, in addition to what he and his family need to live, he wants to invest in the U.S. health care system – including Alzheimer’s research.

With an estimated fortune of $129 billion, Gates is considered the fourth richest person in the world in 2022. Already, Gates said, he plans to donate $20 billion of that to the charitable foundation this month. At the same time, annual donations are expected to increase further.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates had already increased annual donations to $6 billion per year and plans to steadily increase them to $9 billion annually by 2026.

“Our goal will be the same – but at this moment when there is a great need and there is a great opportunity, these donations will allow us to make faster progress in investing more and deeper in the areas we are already working on,” Gates continued.

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Thanks to Warren Buffet

Gates expresses special thanks for U.S. major investor Warren Buffet, who donated half of the resources available to the foundation. Since 2006, he said, Buffet, whose fortune itself is said to be $113 billion, has himself donated $35.7 billion. Alone 3.1 billion of it in month June 2022.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 1999 by the couple. It has made it its mission to financially support global development, the health system and the education sector and to fight global poverty with the donations. Donations have gone to thousands of projects and organizations in more than 100 countries around the world.

As an example, Gates cites support for a new vaccine against rotavirus that has reduced the annual death toll of children who contract the virus by 75 percent. “I am very proud of the Gates Foundation’s role in these areas,” Gates says.