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Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 17:00:49 -0700 (MST)
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Subject: [ihealth] Article from deseretnews.com
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Note: You may find this interesting:

The following story appeared on deseretnews.com on March 28, 1999, 12:00 AM MST

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Headline: A strategy is essential when giving to charity

Author: By Bill Gates

Writing a newspaper column is something I never imagined doing, but over the
past four years it's been my privilege to write 110 of them including this one
-- my last.

Thanks for reading my column and for sending all your interesting questions.
Your e-mail has made me think, and replying has been fun. I've answered 174
questions, including most of the common ones. But at least one frequent inquiry
has gone unanswered until now: What is my philosophy of charitable giving?

It's a timely question because recently I've been getting an education in
philanthropy. My wife and I are trying to learn how to give money to charitable
organizations in the ways that will do the most good.

Distributing money effectively to charity is not nearly as easy as you might
think. Discipline and a strategy are essential. Until fairly recently, my plan
was to wait until later in my career to begin extensive giving, to allow time
for a lot of focus. But I've accelerated my philanthropic plans.

Melinda and I are convinced that there are certain kinds of gifts -- investments
in the future -- that are better made sooner than later.

I'm optimistic about the world. Technology is helping people meet a lot of
challenges, including medical challenges, and the pace of progress will only
increase. But my enthusiasm is tempered by impatience with how long it's going
to take for the rewards to reach everybody in need. My philanthropy will focus
on spreading the benefits more quickly.

As many people as possible should share in the remarkable advances in education,
technology and medicine that many of us take for granted. Children around the
world, for example, should have the basics of modern medicine, regardless of
where they live or what they can afford. School children, and older citizens
too, should have access to computers and the Internet regardless of their
economic circumstances.

It's imperative to give wisely, which to us means focusing support on children
and on helping people to help themselves. The ultimate way to help people help
themselves is to provide them with medical treatment that allows them to live
longer, more productive lives.

Ted Turner, the founder of Cable News Network, set an admirable example when he
pledged $1 billion over 10 years to support United Nations programs aiding
refugees and children, clearing mines and fighting diseases. Like Andrew
Carnegie, whose charitable giving a century ago made an enormous difference to a
large number of people and communities, I believe in bringing the discipline of
business to the art of giving.

In practical terms, doing as much good as possible with every dollar means
finding special opportunities and partnering with groups already doing excellent
work. Funding childhood vaccination programs in developing countries and giving
personal computers to libraries are examples of programs we're funding through
two foundations. These and similar programs are intended to help people live
healthier and more enriched lives, and they give great "bang for the buck."

It can cost as little as $2 a year to give a child a vaccination that may save
his or her life. Setting up a library with computers and software costs only
several thousand dollars yet benefits an entire community.

It appears that we're at a moment in history when certain kinds of focused
charitable expenditures can make a disproportionate positive difference. The
potential for development of effective medicines for diseases such as AIDS and
malaria is much higher today than it was even five years ago, thanks to
impressive advances in biotechnology. Within the next 20 years we may have
treatments for many common diseases.

One of the groups we're proud to support is the International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative. The experience of the past quarter century shows how dramatically
vaccines can improve public health. In the 1970s, few vaccines were available to
most of the world's children. The world infant-mortality was twice what it is
now. The death rate has fallen because six important vaccines now reach 80
percent of the world's children.

My wife and I recently established the Children's Vaccine Program to speed the
delivery of new and existing vaccines to kids in the poorest nations. It will
work closely with experts from the United Nation, World Bank, World Health
Organization, major pharmaceutical companies, and a group in Seattle called
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).

As the Internet becomes a fundamental tool for learning, Melinda and I are
increasingly concerned about the gap between those who have access to it and
those who don't -- a gap that some call the "digital divide." Helping close that
gap is the primary goal of the Gates Learning Foundation.

The foundation is helping make libraries a place where people come to get access
to electronic information and the Internet when they don't have machines at
home. Public libraries have played that role for books. They can do it for
computers, too. We've worked with more than 1,300 libraries in 28 states so
far.

Librarians report that people who otherwise might not visit libraries,
especially young people, come in to take advantage of the computers and often
start using other library services. Book circulation actually rises in many
libraries that get new computers. We're excited to make the program more global
and to extend it beyond libraries.

Because of my support for libraries, parallels are sometimes drawn to Carnegie,
whose charitable giving a century ago built more than 2,800 libraries --
including many of the libraries we're now equipping with computers. It's a
flattering and sobering comparison.

Carnegie believed that the wealthy are custodians of society's resources and
have a moral obligation to spend altruistically and wisely. Charitable funds are
most constructive if spent by the person who earned them, Carnegie argued.
Willing wealth to charity isn't enough. "The man who dies thus rich dies
disgraced," he declared. Carnegie understood that books could help transform
society, if all society had access to books.

I feel the same way about medical and information technologies. Society stands
on the brink of exceptional change, and I can hardly wait for people everywhere
to share in the benefits. I'm a steward of some of society's resources, and take
the responsibility seriously. It's a privilege to be in this position -- and at
such a critical, hopeful time in human history.

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Copyright 1999, Deseret News Publishing Co.

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