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Several friends of mine work at the Gates Foundation up here in Seattle and they comment a lot about the pressure they're under to GIVE AWAY the Gates' money fa

Several friends of mine work at the Gates Foundation up here in Seattle and they comment a lot about the pressure they're under to GIVE AWAY the Gates' money faster. There's a running "joke" internally there (Gates himself does not find it funny and puts a lot of pressure internally on the folks responsible) that it's been nearly impossible to outspend Gates' financial gains as his own wealth keeps growing too fast. Kind of a funny thought.

josefresco 12y ago
This seems to fly in the face of the approach that Bill and Melinda have publicly claimed to have taken. Instead of "writing a big check" they're managing (very directly it seems) the allocation of funds to effective and worthwhile programs. There may internal pressure to "give money away" but I doubt many have the freedom to start writing checks for ...anything.
- sharkweek 12y ago
  Despite the internal commentary, which is mostly in jest, spending arbitrarily is going to get you fired pretty quick. But there is still a metric ton of pressure to find the right things to spend money on, and they struggle to do so in a lot of cases. It's interesting to think about from an entrepreneurial perspective, that The Gates Foundation has plenty of capital to "invest" but the companies and programs are often not mature enough to warrant massive grants. There might be a ton of small NGOs doing awesome work all over the world, and they can take small grants (XX,000-XXX,000), but imagine what a nightmare it becomes for them if given the burden of tens of millions of dollars all the sudden. Money solves a lot of problems in the nonprofit world, but sudden cash infusions can often create a lot of bizarre problems. And on the other side, even if The Gates Foundation gives thousands of six figure grants out, that's not going to make a dent in the overall pool of cash.
  - josefresco 12y ago
    I wonder if an element of the foundation could be helping to scale or "staff up" these NGO's to be able to scale/deal with an influx of funding? Obviously, "staffing up" is time intensive, but I would think they would need an alternative approach if finding worthy organizations becomes difficult.
    - sharkweek 12y ago
      I do think there is a pretty big incentive now for really smart people to work on the world's most important problems (disease, famine, poverty, education, etc) knowing there is a lot of capital to back it up. I know internally at TGF they've been working to market their grant programs better to encourage more young "startup" companies apply.
- unprepare 12y ago
  I got the impression more that the Gates' were eager to devote more money to the foundation, and the hurry is placed on finding worthwile ways to spend that money, rather than literally 'give this to anyone who will take it!'
- brador 12y ago
  Bill's still Bill. He's always been conservative with resource allocation. The old story that he always had a year of wages for every employee in the company liquid at Microsoft from day 1.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Sounds a bit like "Brewster's Millions", just with more zeroes.
alsdifu3 12y ago
It's not surprising. The GF is paid for by disbursing a set % of the endowment's value each year. Obviously the people managing the endowment only have one goal which is to keep it growing.
stedaniels 12y ago
He should set up a website, enter your bank details (and maybe some unique personal information), click submit and it sends you a randomised sum of money, once. Heck, make the proviso that it signs you up to his annual Gates notes for life ;-)

josefresco 12y ago

This seems to fly in the face of the approach that Bill and Melinda have publicly claimed to have taken. Instead of "writing a big check" they're managing (very directly it seems) the allocation of funds to effective and worthwhile programs. There may internal pressure to "give money away" but I doubt many have the freedom to start writing checks for ...anything.

sharkweek 12y ago
Despite the internal commentary, which is mostly in jest, spending arbitrarily is going to get you fired pretty quick. But there is still a metric ton of pressure to find the right things to spend money on, and they struggle to do so in a lot of cases. It's interesting to think about from an entrepreneurial perspective, that The Gates Foundation has plenty of capital to "invest" but the companies and programs are often not mature enough to warrant massive grants. There might be a ton of small NGOs doing awesome work all over the world, and they can take small grants (XX,000-XXX,000), but imagine what a nightmare it becomes for them if given the burden of tens of millions of dollars all the sudden. Money solves a lot of problems in the nonprofit world, but sudden cash infusions can often create a lot of bizarre problems. And on the other side, even if The Gates Foundation gives thousands of six figure grants out, that's not going to make a dent in the overall pool of cash.
- josefresco 12y ago
  I wonder if an element of the foundation could be helping to scale or "staff up" these NGO's to be able to scale/deal with an influx of funding? Obviously, "staffing up" is time intensive, but I would think they would need an alternative approach if finding worthy organizations becomes difficult.
  - sharkweek 12y ago
    I do think there is a pretty big incentive now for really smart people to work on the world's most important problems (disease, famine, poverty, education, etc) knowing there is a lot of capital to back it up. I know internally at TGF they've been working to market their grant programs better to encourage more young "startup" companies apply.
unprepare 12y ago
I got the impression more that the Gates' were eager to devote more money to the foundation, and the hurry is placed on finding worthwile ways to spend that money, rather than literally 'give this to anyone who will take it!'
brador 12y ago
Bill's still Bill. He's always been conservative with resource allocation. The old story that he always had a year of wages for every employee in the company liquid at Microsoft from day 1.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

Sounds a bit like "Brewster's Millions", just with more zeroes.

alsdifu3 12y ago

It's not surprising. The GF is paid for by disbursing a set % of the endowment's value each year. Obviously the people managing the endowment only have one goal which is to keep it growing.

stedaniels 12y ago

He should set up a website, enter your bank details (and maybe some unique personal information), click submit and it sends you a randomised sum of money, once. Heck, make the proviso that it signs you up to his annual Gates notes for life ;-)