History of the Gates Foundation

The Gates Foundation was established in 2000 after a merger between two major nonprofits. At the time, Bill Gates was the richest man in the world and he wanted to see children in other countries survive illnesses that were considered preventable in first world countries. Not only did Bill Gates get involved in this prospect, but his wife Melinda was very involved in the organization as well. Overtime, Bill Gates shifted his focus from Microsoft and the private sector in general to focus his time and energy on his nonprofit foundation (BBC). 

In the early days of the Gates Foundation, they were primarily focused on treating and preventing Malaria and HIV in third world countries. Bill and Melinda also spent significant portions of their nonprofit money on a vaccine program that increased vaccination rates around the world (BBC). Overtime, the organization shifted its focus from solely providing medical supplies to being a monstrosity of a nonprofit by sticking its foot in many different aspects of the nonprofit sector, including education, the empowerment of women, and sanitation. 

The Gates Foundation and its Impact on Education

This chapter focuses on educational philanthropy, so it is important to discuss the impacts that the Gates Foundation has had on education in the US. The first aspect of donations they provide is in the form of grants and scholarships to underprivileged students. According to the BBC, the Gates Foundations have provided 20,000 scholarships to low income students of color throughout the US (BBC).  These donations have contributed to increase in these student’s accessibility to higher education.

The Gates Foundation also donates significant amounts of its funds towards changing public policy education. They spent these funds almost like lobbyists to shift the attention of the government to focus on public educational policies that they see to be vitally important. The Gates have a huge impact on the social policy that is created within the government. They can use their money, time, and resources to convince the government to do what fits into their agenda. In this case, it isn’t always inherently negative. The Gates have funded successful projects in the past, but with their funding having a direct impact on governmental decisions, the Gates have more power in public education than many could ever imagine (Strauss).