The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has made some of the biggest gifts to higher-education institutions in history, plans to spend all of its assets within 50 years of the death of its last living trustee, the foundation has announced. According to a statement posted this week on its Web site, the $32-billion foundation will spend itself out of existence after its three trustees die. The trustees are Bill Gates, who is 51; Melinda Gates, who is 42; and Warren Buffett, the 76-year-old investor who just pledged to add $31-billion to the foundation. Among the foundation’s gifts to higher education is a scholarship program that was financed with an initial $1-billion gift and later supplemented. The foundation has also made gifts to individual colleges and universities.
December 1, 2006
Gates Foundation, Major Donor to Academe, Plans to Spend All Assets
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Peer Review
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Academic Assets
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Teaching
