“We will spend ourselves down to zero within 20 years of the death of the last of Bill and Melinda,” said CEO Mark Suzman in an interview with Fortune.
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00:00 The Gates Foundation plans to spend its entire $67 billion endowment within 20 years of Bill and Melinda's deaths.
00:06 CEO Mark Sussman told Fortune they might want to even accelerate that a little bit.
00:10 This year, the foundation has committed to giving away $8.6 billion according to its annual donor letter.
00:16 And in the letter, Sussman encouraged wealthy people to be a bit more generous with their giving.
00:20 As the world's richest private foundation, the Gates Foundation believes billionaires should give more of their money away
00:25 to high-impact causes that can change and save most lives instead of giving just to elite universities.
00:31 For example, Sussman said, "What if, alongside a $100 million gift to a highly selective university,
00:36 they also gave $100 million to set up a system that makes online textbooks free for every college student in the U.S. forever?"
00:42 Sussman also said if every billionaire were to donate just 0.5% of their wealth, it would result in $61 billion.
00:49 And that would be enough to save the lives of 2 million mothers and babies,
00:52 reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 gigaton a year,
00:55 and prevent 7 million deaths through vaccination, still leaving almost $50 billion left over.