- Image by jdparker via Flickr
The largest private foundation in the world is Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation was started in the year 1994. It was started as William H. Gates foundation and then it was named as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the year 2000 after the Gates learning foundation merged with William H. Gates Foundation. It is one of the transparently operated foundations in the world. They work towards enhancing the healthcare and reduction of poverty all over the world. They are also bent towards providing educational opportunities to the lesser privileged, providing access to the information technology. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett as its trustees. As on December 31, 2009 this foundation has an endowment of around 34 billion USD and the founders were listed as the second most generous philanthropists in USA in the year 2007 and they were also Time Persons of the year in the year 2005. The donations from this foundation range to around 1.5 billion USD per year and the foundation has 3 programs namely Global Health Program, Global development program and United States Program.
In the Global Health Program, the Gates foundation donates more than 800 million USD per year. This program shares its interest in Children’s Vaccine program, HIV research, Global TB vaccine Foundation etc.
Global development program offers financial services to the poor. Grameen foundation, a part of global development program offer micro finances to the poor . The Global Development program is also involves agricultural research and they also have special grants towards the natural catastrophes etc.
The United States Program involves the library project where internet services can be accessed in public libraries. This program also offers funding to start many small schools around USA so that by reducing the student to teacher ratio the quality of education can be improved. This program also provides many scholarships in different universities across USA.
