The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has established itself as the world’s biggest charity and even as hard times hit the world, it continues to do its work the best it can. In fact, Bill Gates, the co-chairman, has released a statement to the effect that they are going to increase spending during the recession. The rationale is that it can make a stronger impact on the world by doing so. However, he also gave a disclaimer – that they cannot keep up this kind of spending for more than a year, unless the economy improves.
MSNBC featured the foundation and quote Gates:
“I believe that the wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequity,” Gates said in his letter. “This is especially true when the constraints on others are so great. 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.”
“We’re seeing just impact after impact as that rolls through the economy,” he said, blaming “pension liabilities, absurd assumptions and bad accounting.”
“I’m still optimistic that things will get back on track” within five to 10 years, Gates said, but he acknowledged that the financial crunch was likely to put a squeeze on the foundation’s spending in coming years.
We might not be as wealthy as Bill Gates. We may not have the world’s biggest philanthropic organization. But we can adopt the same idea as Bill Gates has – we can perhaps spare a bit more here and there to help in our own little way. What do you think?