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Charity Foundations

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Christina Bell
University of Phoenix
Dr. Kevin Bottomley
HSM 260

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Introduction
Charities are an integral part of every community, whether it is a small non-profit or a worldwide organization. Charity is the way of helping people in need and even a small amount of donations can make a substantial impact on the community. The act of charity assists to make the community a better place to live by delivering services and goods to the group of individuals who may not otherwise have access to them (Ein-Gar & Levontin, 2013). While the funding of the government also makes a valuable contribution in fostering the charity work, many charities rely on donations from people and organizations as well. Furthermore, knowing that one has sacrificed something such as finances, property or time for the purpose to strengthen the way of living of people in need provides a sense of inner satisfaction and a purpose of life (Anheier, 2014). Many governmental entities are incapable to support certain types of charities. Therefore, these non-profit organizations depend on the funding from the common pubic. Among these charitable organizations, one organization that often comes in mind is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation due to its valuable contribution to the society. This paper will provide an overview about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and highlights the projects it currently supports.

Discussion
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a charitable organization situated in Seattle, U.S. The foundation came into existence by the efforts of Bill and Melina Gates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2015). The foundation is considered as the largest private foundation across the globe. Additionally, the foundation is regarded as the largest transparently managed private organization worldwide. The foundation is inspired by the passions and interest of the Gates family. The foundation has global perspective and its main objective is to enhance the wellbeing of people, improving quality of healthcare and reducing the poverty by eradicating its sources and causes. The organization is committed to increase the awareness and educate the people about information technology as well as to expand the educational opportunities, particularly in U.S. The foundation is controlled by its three trustees i.e. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates. Apart from that, the other principal officers include Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Co-Chair William H. Gates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2015).
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation helped countless causes and charities over the year, which usually concentrates on educational issues and health. The assets of the foundation amplified drastically when a renowned investor and friend Warren Buffet guaranteed billions of dollars to the organization. The foundation has been an active partner of the Global Fund, delivering cash donation and demonstrating an active participation on its committees. The foundation has been engaged in extensive funding related to fundraising and advocacy efforts. The manner in which the foundation seeks to incorporate business techniques and the scale of the foundation to charitable work has made the organization as one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution in the global philanthropy. The founders of Gates Foundation ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in U.S, after Warren Buffet. Bill Gates has always been more concerned with the growing prevalence of poverty in the community and decreasing trend in quality of living of the people (Galaskiewicz, 2013). He had contributed $28 billion to the foundation in the year 2013, illustrating his commitment and dedication to the foundation. In 2010, the founders of the foundation initiated the Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st century by the name “Transforming education to strengthen health system in an interdependent world”. The Gates Foundation started a Charitable Sector Support Program in which the organization works closely with the partners to harness the power of technology, data and policy advocacy, in conjunction with the best practices in business, philanthropy and nonprofits for the purpose to develop a flexible, smarter and stronger charitable sector. In order to sustain its status and reputation as charitable foundation, the foundation has analyzed that it must donate funds equivalent to at least five percent of its assets every year. At the moment, the foundation is categorized into four divisions which include Global Development Division, United States Division, Global Health Division and Global Policy & Advocacy Division. Furthermore, the foundation was the biggest early support of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2015).

Conclusion
The charitable sector along with the partners in government and business contributes enormous amount of money every year to address the complex challenges and strengthen the lives of the people around the world. However, the policy and information barriers often hamper the free flow of resources to where they are critically required. These limitations also results in repetitions and unproductive efforts. The donors and nonprofits organizations often strive to locate the information and data that can assist them to strengthen their point of influence (Ein-Gar & Levontin, 2013). The dearth of sophisticated and seamless systems for distributing information between nonprofits and donors also thwarts the funds from reaching to the most capable solution and programs and also obstructs the collaboration among organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has undertaken a social task to nourish the quality of living, enhance the wellbeing and diminish the extreme poverty of the people for the purpose to make this world a better place for living.

References

Anheier, H. K. (2014). Nonprofit Organizations: An Introduction: Theory, Management, Policy. Routledge.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, (2015). Who We Are. Retrieved from : http://www.gatesfoundation.org/who-we-are
Ein-Gar, D., & Levontin, L. (2013). Giving from a distance: Putting the charitable organization at the center of the donation appeal. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23(2) 197-211. Retrieved from: http://preportal.idc.ac.il/he/schools/psychology/homepage/documents/levontin%202012%20jcp.pdf
Galaskiewicz, J. (2013). Social organization of an urban grants economy: A study of business philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. Elsevier.

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