BUFFET'S BILLIONS

A remarkable day. Warren Buffet has decided to donate the bulk of his $60 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. How much money is $60 billion? "By comparison," the WSJ writes, "the United Nations and its agencies spend about $12 billion per year." The next-largest charitable foundation, the Ford Foundation, has an endowment less than one-fifth the size. The donation rivals any in history. Andrew Carnegie, one of America's greatest philanthropists, gave away around $7.6 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the WP.
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In addition, according to the Fortune article—and this a detail none of the papers pick up on, so far as TP can see—Buffett's agreement with Gates specifies that after two years, during which the foundation will "resize its operations," it will then be required to "to annually spend the dollar amount of his contributions as well as those it is already making from its existing assets." As TP understands it, that means if Buffett gives the foundation $1.5 billion (as he will this year), it will have to dole out $1.5 billion. That is roughly the amount UNICEF spent in 2004.

In other words: Grant writers, start your engines. While the donation was generally applauded in the world of public health, where the Gates Foundation is a huge player, there is some worry about concentrating so much spending power in one organization. No one mentions—as a recent Financial Times profile of Gates did (registration required, but it's posted various other places online)—that there are some concerns about whether the foundation is distributing its already enormous resources wisely. There is a lot of touching detail about the relationship between Buffett, 75, and Gates, 50. The NYT says the two "have become extremely close business associates and confidants since they met in 1991," traveling together, advising one another, and "regularly playing online bridge games."