Editorial: Foundation is a model of charitable competence
We’re used to seeing “billions” in association with “Gates,” so the announcement that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $10 billion for vaccines in developing countries might not generate much applause.
It should, because the commitment is astounding. Even before this contribution, the Gates Foundation had doled out more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the Rockefeller Foundation, which was established in 1913.
More importantly, the money stands a good chance of making a real difference, because Bill and Melinda Gates are so diligent about spending wisely. Warren Buffett said he decided to channel his considerable wealth through the foundation because he was impressed with the expertise the Gates Foundation demonstrated in effective philanthropy. He is very good at making money. The foundation is better at spending it.
As we’ve seen with relief efforts after the Southeast Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake, it is easy for huge humanitarian efforts to go awry and for money to be wasted. The experience with birth control and AIDS prevention in Third World countries is also instructive. Tribalism, tradition, corruption, poverty and religion pose considerable barriers.
Thus, the Gates Foundation carefully considers where it can make the greatest difference. As Melinda Gates once told Forbes magazine, “We literally go down the chart of the greatest inequities and give where we can effect the greatest change.”
The couple determined that inoculating children in the world’s most impoverished regions would achieve the greatest gains. Experts say the vaccine donation could save as many as 8 million children in 10 years. The foundation has already donated $4.5 billion to the development and delivery of inoculations against such diseases as pneumonia and malaria. A promising vaccination against rotavirus-induced diarrhea could save more than 2 million children.
This same rigor is demonstrated in their donations to education. They decided that high schools were being neglected, so that’s where they funneled their efforts. The Gates Foundation helped finance new high schools to replace failing ones in New York City. Those schools eventually achieved a 73 percent graduation rate versus the 43 percent graduation rate of the schools they replaced, according to Forbes.
The Gates Foundation has become a model of effective philanthropy. In the parlance of sports, it is a difference-maker, because it realizes that compassion without competence is an empty gesture.