Gates Foundation gives only 5% to Developing Countries

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is considered to be the largest private donor foundation in the United States. It has an endowment of more than US $35 billion and considered to be the second most generous philanthropist in the country. Its primary goal is to reduce poverty at the global level. But according to David McCoy and his colleagues at the Centre for International Development at the University College, London, UK, only five percent of its total grants have gone directly to the low and middle income countries between the years 1998 and 2007 while 82% of the funding went to organizations in the United States. Besides, the Foundation has also been found to have made 60% of its grants to about 20 organizations only. While one of the objectives of the Foundation is also to advance education in the United States, but only some universities have received substantial amounts of grants. Some local NGOs in developing countries also agree that the Foundation is interested in dealing only with “big and branded” organizations, which end up getting huge sums of money that are consumbed by their administrative expenditures. Small and remotely located organizations hardly fail to get a even a small presence in this larger bowl of developmental support. Link.