GATES FOUNDATION TAKES UP QUESTION OF ITS OWN POWER

Does The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have too much power and influence?

It’s a question the foundation’s CEO Mark Suzman raised in its annual letter released this week that outlines the organization’s priorities and announces its budget for the coming year. With $8.3 billion to give away in 2023, the Gates Foundation is the largest private philanthropic donor. And with an endowment of more than $70 billion, its spending power is likely to continue for many decades.

When asked in an interview what he thought the answer to that question was, Suzman said, “No.”

He said the Seattle-based foundation takes its direction from the Sustainable Development Goals, set by the United Nations and its member countries in 2015, and knows that with its great resources come great responsibility.

“We try to use our tools, our skills, our resources, sometimes our technical skills, sometimes our voice in advocacy to help advance and drive those forward,” Suzman said.

Others disagree, including researchers who have followed the foundation’s funding for education in the U.S., its weight in international global health organizations and its approach toward the agriculture of small-holder farmers around the world. The foundation works on a wide range of issues and employs 1,700 staff members, who are experts in those areas, and espouses a dream-big ethos of setting ambitious goals.

Bill Gates, in his most recent public letter in December, described the foundation’s mission as reducing inequity and helping “people in poor countries who shouldn’t die, not die. Especially children.” Suzman said its mission is to help “ensure that every person has the chance to lead a healthy, productive life.”