As I consider the year ahead, the realist and the optimist in me are at odds.
The realist knows this is the toughest moment in a generation for the issues that brought me, and many others, to philanthropy in the first place: the health and prosperity of those furthest from economic opportunity.
After two decades of enormous progress in global health and development, we now see significant backsliding. Incidences of tuberculosis and malaria are on the rise following years of decline. Vaccination rates are down from pre-pandemic levels, and progress in maternal mortality has slowed. When the expanded child tax credit was allowed to lapse in 2022, the child poverty rate in the United States doubled — a record one-year increase.
Yet especially in low-income countries, funding to address these challenges has stagnated and, in some cases, declined. According to the United Nations, approximately 3.3 billion people — nearly half of humanity — live in countries that spend more on paying off foreign debt than they do on health and education.
This is the hard reality. But the optimist in me remains encouraged by the potential to solve these problems. Every day across the globe people develop tools, services, and policies that can save lives and improve livelihoods.
To unleash this potential, however, business as usual won’t cut it. This moment demands more: more urgency, more resources, and more bold new ideas. I make that case, as CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in my 2024 annual letter, released today.
While money is only part of the equation, it’s critical. That’s why the Gates Foundation board committed to spending $9 billion annually by 2026 and earlier this month approved a 2024 budget of $8.6 billion. In recent years, the Gates Foundation has distributed approximately 10 percent of our endowment, currently $67.3 billion, annually.
Right now, the world needs a massive amount of help from philanthropy. Here are three things grant makers and major donors can do to unlock all that potential and help get the planet back on track.
Give to the areas of highest need. For our foundation, that means focusing on lives saved and improved so everyone can reach their full potential — especially the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. A great proportion of charitable giving in the United States, however, goes to elite universities and cultural institutions. But it doesn’t need to be an either-or choice.
Consider Charles Feeney, a philanthropist who inspired many, including our co-chairs, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, our foundation’s other benefactor.
Feeney died last year having given away virtually all of his wealth while he was alive to a vast array of causes. Feeney exemplifies the approach I’m suggesting: He gave generously to his alma mater and to meeting basic human needs in low- and middle- income countries. Thousands of people are thriving today because he saw gaps and helped fill them. Just think about the impact if more philanthropists followed his lead.
During this time of backsliding, more wealthy individuals need to adopt what I call “yes, and” philanthropy: If donors make a gift to their alma mater, they should pair it with an equally large gift to a program that makes online textbooks free to all college students. Or they could pair a gift to a research institution in a wealthy country with a gift to fund research on infectious diseases that primarily affect poor people in developing countries.
Spend more assertively. At the start of this year, charitable foundations in the United States found themselves with nearly $1.5 trillion in assets.
Consider all the good that money could do: clinical trials for drugs that could sharply reduce illness and death rates from the world’s worst infectious diseases. High-quality literacy instruction in countries where most 10-year-olds can’t read a basic sentence. Simple steps during pregnancy and childbirth that could save the lives of millions of mothers and babies. And countless other potential breakthroughs — some just seeds of ideas today, others more fully developed — waiting to reach the people who need them most.
But achieving those types of results requires spending more now. I strongly encourage more foundations to go beyond the required 5 percent disbursement rate in the United States and Canada, as we have.
Additionally, we have committed to giving away all the foundation’s dollars within 20 years of our founders’ deaths. We chose this path because we believe in helping solve urgent problems as soon as possible and helping set up systems that will outlive us. Given the scope of challenges facing communities today, I hope other grant makers consider this approach as well.
To get more resources into the world, larger numbers of wealthy individuals — not just foundations — also need to give more. The portfolios of the world’s wealthiest have grown substantially since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet giving among the ultra-wealthy hasn’t kept pace with that growth.
Imagine the possibilities if the world’s billionaires, worth a combined $12.2 trillion, donated just .05 percent of their net worth — or more than $6 billion — to charitable causes. They could save and improve hundreds of millions of lives — and still have billions left over.
Celebrate philanthropy in all its forms — and encourage more of it. To be clear, many people are stepping up. One way to get more to join them is to celebrate what’s working in philanthropy: The generosity that’s driving progress and innovation.
I’m excited by the work of collaborative funds, such as Co-Impact and Blue Meridian Partners, which help donors increase their impact and ensure they don’t have to navigate the journey alone. And I’m inspired by the many innovative, passionate donors around the world.
They include philanthropists Azim Premji of India and Belinda Tanoto of Indonesia who both fund transformational education work. I admire MacKenzie Scott, whose large, unrestricted gifts are already showing results in the United States. and across the globe. The same goes for people such as Jeffrey Skoll, whose foundation funds community health workers in Liberia, among other priorities, and African philanthropist Tsitsi Masiyiwa, a strong advocate for gender equality on that continent and beyond.
And let’s not forget the generosity of everyday people, including the more than $13 billion in donations facilitated by GivingTuesday since its inception in 2012. That generosity also includes remittances, which are funds migrants send to their home countries. Often overlooked in conversations about philanthropy, they reached $590 billion in 2020 — far surpassing all other sources of international aid combined.
The world is awash in generosity and untapped philanthropic potential to drive progress. During these challenging times, let’s do all we can to meet that potential and ensure all people have the chance to lead healthy and prosperous lives. And let’s do more to encourage others to join us.
