On May 8, the Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world, unveiled its audacious endgame. It will give out $200 billion over the next 20 years—double its total giving to date—exhausting its endowment and virtually all of Bill Gates’ fortune as the founder of Microsoft. Then the foundation will close its doors for good.
This empty-the-tank strategy, says foundation CEO Mark Suzman, offers a real shot at a legacy that would long outlive the organization: driving a handful of the world’s deadliest diseases to extinction. “We hope there are some things we will have literally solved,” he says.
The Gates Foundation, with its partners, has already helped push polio to the brink of annihilation, reducing cases by 99.9%. Future successes, Suzman says, will depend on new innovations, from vaccines to AI—and wealthy nations continuing to support lifesaving programs abroad.
“We cannot possibly make up the slack of the government cuts,” Suzman says. His hope is that the foundation’s massive pledge and bold vision will help draw governments back into the fold. “Success is not only possible. It has happened in the past, and it can happen in the future,” Suzman says.