Bill and Melinda's $60 Billion Challenge

Bill and Melinda's $60 Billion Challenge

There have always been loads of critics against Bill Gates, mainly from fundametalists and computer nerds. He built a company upon the dream that everybody could have a PC and easily use it. Windows and Office may have lots of faults (finally Italy scores, it has been a rather boring game and I really hope tomorrow we will win and face them, cause if they play has well as they did today it won't be that hard ;), but the truth is that nearlly everybody can use a computer (bloody hell only now these Italians wake up) and what they produce is compatible with nearlly all the other PC a person may need to use and this without any need to be a computer nerd, know programming or to depend mostly on a keyboard. Maybe a decade from now a company will be able to deliver such user-friendly programms, then Microsoft will face real competition.

But my post isn't about Microsoft, it's about Bill Gates decision to work part-time at Microsoft and full-time in his Foundation, besides the fact that he has already given more than a third of his fortune to this Foundation, making it the biggest in the world. Many may critizice that he should increase his scope on charitable causes, that he should not focus only on the erradication of poverty and on USA's poor's education or that he only donates to the projects he chooses to. This week The Economist has a great article on this subject, which highly complements BusinessWeek's one. In The Economist its stated that, already with this week's donation, the Foundation only has about $1 for each person living in poverty in under-developed countries. So I agree with The Economist, Bill Gates by focusing on two big causes is acting the right way, because only with that focus he can have a true impact in the causes he defends.

If you scatter your donations, they will be to small to make a difference, an impact in the lifes of those you aim to help. Then there is another thing just as important as focusing in a few causes, making the projects/organizations you donate money to accountable, not because you want to make a profit but to maximize your donation and the potential impact it can achieve. We cannot keep on thinking that a humanitarian organization/project will always to their best and will always be honest, firstly they need to work in a more business like manner in terms of maximizing costs effectiveness, because every $1 saved is a $1 you can employ in what really matters. Yes they need to be accountable to minimize waste and so that the donor is sure his money is not used in other stuff then what he aimed for.

The main reason I say this is because, at least in Portugal, there are lots of "humanitarian" organizations that give their Presidents, Founders and other members high in the ladder perks, which in Portugal's case sometimes are higher than some given to for-profit organizations' managers. In the end there are some less honest people who take advantage of the fact that the organization they manage is not accountable and that most donors don't demand that accountability and the results achieved by the projects to which they gave their money.

I believe a man who built one of the most powerfull organizations from scratch, who became the richest person in the world may be just the most fit person to run the biggest Foundation in our world and make an impact, especialy in a cause that is also my dearest: the development of under-developed countries and the erradication of poverty.