In a letter inspired by billionaire Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders, Bill Gates issued a 20-page look at the state of his foundation, saying it will give out a record amount of money this year even though the stock-market rout has hurt its endowment.
In the letter, aimed at partners of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Gates said the value of the charity's endowment dropped 20% in 2008, faring better than many of its peers and many large investment funds. Mr. Gates didn't disclose the current size of the foundation's endowment, but the drop implies a value of $30 billion to $31 billion.
"I never thought I would say losing 20% is a reasonable result, but it is better than most endowments because so many asset classes went down by more than 20% in 2008," Mr. Gates wrote. Mr. Gates said in his note that despite the drop, his foundation will increase its spending to $3.8 billion in 2009 from $3.3 billion last year. The figure includes money from Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares that Mr. Buffett has donated to the Gates foundation.
Mr. Buffett, known for his witty and widely read letters to Berkshire shareholders, encouraged his friend to write his own, Mr. Gates said.
Mr. Gates's comments come as philanthropic foundations and nonprofit organizations are being battered by the financial crisis. Endowments are falling while demand for nonprofit services is growing. As the world's largest private philanthropy -- even with the drop in the value of its endowment -- the Gates foundation is closely watched by other nonprofits as well as governments and workers in the sectors where it issues grants, including global health, education and development areas such as financial services for the poor.
The economic problems are bad timing for Mr. Gates. He left full-time work at Microsoft Corp. last year to focus on philanthropy. He needs strong partners in government, the private sector and other nonprofits to help spur advances in the areas the foundation is focusing on. In his letter, Mr. Gates noted that cuts in government funding at home and abroad could undermine advances in coming years in health and education.
The letter overall was upbeat, reflecting Mr. Gates's optimism about the ability of technology and smart people to change people's lives. He pointed to progress he sees in health, saying he is hopeful that within six years the world -- presumably with funding from the Gates foundation -- will find a way for people to protect themselves from getting HIV/AIDS. "I don't see the economic recession changing the foundation's goals -- just making them significantly harder to achieve in a particular time frame," Mr. Gates said on a conference call Monday.
Keeping spending up is crucial, "otherwise we will come out of the economic downturn in a world that is even more unequal, with greater inequities in health and education and fewer opportunities for people to improve their lives," he wrote.
Mr. Gates wrote that he is urging government leaders to keep up spending on foreign aid, noting that Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands are big donors relative to the size of their economies. He singled out Italy as one country that is cutting aid. "I'm hopeful the government will find a way to restore this funding" when it hosts the Group of Eight leading nations this year, he wrote. Mr. Gates wrote that he is "impressed" with President Barack Obama's talk of the need to spend to stimulate the economy while also staying focused on long-term goals like education.
While the economic crisis won't be over in the next two years or so, Mr. Gates said, he predicted that "if you take a longer time frame, such as five to ten years, I am very optimistic that these problems will be behind us." In particular, Mr. Gates said developments in materials science, genetics, energy generation and other areas "will help improve the world and re-invigorate the economy."
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