Gates Foundation gets $10.4M in donations

Summary

The world's richest foundation has just given other charities one more reason to be jealous. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's annual report says it brought in $10.4 million in individual donations in 2008, without making any effort at fundraising.

Story Published: Jun 5, 2009 at 5:18 PM PST

Story Updated: Jun 5, 2009 at 5:18 PM PST

Gates Foundation gets $10.4M in donations

Bill Gates

SEATTLE (AP) - The world's richest foundation has just given other charities one more reason to be jealous. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's annual report says it brought in $10.4 million in individual donations in 2008, without making any effort at fundraising.

That dollar amount does not include new money from Bill or Melinda Gates or their friend Warren Buffet, who gave the foundation's trust about $1.8 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock last year.

The foundation, which has an endowment totaling $27.5 billion as of April 1, began accepting individual donations in 2007. At that time, a foundation spokeswoman said Bill and Melinda decided it wasn't right to say yes to Buffett and no to everyone else who wanted to support the work of the foundation.