The Paper of Record on the Record Bequest
The New York Times has a piece about the impact of the Buffett Bequest on the Gates Foundation. We wrote about that here a few weeks ago. (Good to see them catching up to us!)
A few new factoids have come to light:
Soon one of every ten foundation dollars will come from The Gates Foundation.
A recent proposed $93.5 million cut in funding for small schools was proposed by the Bush administration citing “nonfederal funds” from Gates and Carnegie.
Currently, only four people are deciding how to spend the foundation's money - Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, his father, William Gates, Sr. and Patty Stonesifer, the foundation president.
One the positive side the staff at Gates will have a few years to ramp up to meet the new work load.
The impact of megafoundtions on public policy is yet to be determined, but nonetheless potentially troubling. No doubt this will all be tracked very closely. One can only hope.
Here is the article.