Bill Gates, the world’s richest person, continues to make news for his ten-figure philanthropy.
Gates gave away $4.6 billion in Microsoft shares in June to his personal charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to a filing published Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bloomberg first reported the gift late Monday. Then, on Tuesday, Gates unveiled a new campaign to combat the spread of malaria. His pitch: the Gates Foundation will donate a mosquito net for every person who reads his latest blog post and takes a subsequent quiz.
Gates, best known as a cofounder of Microsoft, now owns just 1.3% of the company's outstanding shares, down from 2.3% before he made the $4.6 billion gift. Microsoft stock currently accounts for just 9% of his overall net worth, which stands at an estimated $85.2 billion, according to Forbes.
Gates announced the mosquito net initiative in a blog posted on Tuesday. Dubbed “Mosquito Wars,” the campaign is part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s broader effort to combat malaria. Each donated net will go to families in the Inhambane region of Mozambique, where the disease is still prevalent, and will be distributed by nonprofit World Vision.
In addition to distributing insecticide-treated bed nets, the Gates Foundation is also seeking to educate the public about the fight against malaria. In his post, Gates wrote about the significant progress that has already been made on that front. Since 2000, the number of people killed by malaria each year has fallen by half, an achievement he calls “miraculous,” though he points out that 429,000 people still died from the disease last year.
The Gates Foundation, which Gates formed with his wife, Melinda, is the world’s largest private charity; it has distributed more than $40 billion in grants to date and supports organizations in over 100 countries. The foundation is currently working to eradicate polio globally in the next three years.
Bill and Melinda Gates, along with Warren Buffett, are cofounders of the Giving Pledge, an initiative that challenges billionaires to commit more than half of their wealth to charity that now boasts 170 signatories. Bill Gates, 61, made his fortune as a cofounder of Microsoft, the software firm he started with Paul Allen in 1975. Despite having given away tens of billions of dollars, he remains the world’s wealthiest individual.
