A Window To The World of Modern Philanthropy

It would be remiss to have a blog about modern philanthropy and not include a post about the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. When Bill Gates started his journey to becoming the worlds wealthiest man back in the 1980’s, he decided that the right thing to do would be to donate proceeds to charity. The company went public in 1994 and is run by Bill Gates and his wife Melinda French-Gates out of their hometown, Seattle, WA. The foundation sends its proceeds to Global Health Program, Global Development Program and United States Program. In 2006 the foundation teamed up with Warren Buffet, the man who fluctuates the title of “Worlds Richest Man” with Bill Gates himself.

Lori & Christopher Alf make hospital donation

Lori & Christopher Alf have once again made a large philanthropic contribution. Their latest recipient was the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, to whom they donated state-of-the-art neonatal transport equipment for critically ill infants requiring high frequency ventilation immediately after delivery.

Larry Brilliant & Google.org plan their philanthropic future

Dr. Larry Brilliant, head of Google’s philanthropic division, Google.org, will be stepping down as general manager, and will adopt the new quintessentially Googlian title of “Chief Philanthropy Evangelist”.

Taking his place will be Google’s vice president of new business development, Megan Smith, who will be taking on the additional role of general manager of Google.org.

Google.org’s innovations since its inception in 2004 have included technological breakthroughs such as Flu Trends, RechargeIT, Clean Energy 2030, and PowerMeter.

Brilliant has said that they still intend to stand behind their commitment made in 2004 to devote 1% of Google’s equity and profits to philanthropy.