(NewsNation) — Bill Gates has pledged to give away 99% of his personal wealth over the next two decades and plans to close the Gates Foundation by 2045.
Gates announced in a blog post Thursday that when he and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, first started the Gates Foundation in 2000, they included a clause that it would shut down decades after their deaths, but decided to speed up the process and did not want to wait that long.
What is fundraising platform GiveSendGo?
Gates wants to accelerate his foundation’s work to improve global health, which comes as the Trump administration made cuts to health and foreign aid programs.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates wrote. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”
The Gates Foundation has already given away more than $100 billion over its first 25 years. The organization’s last day of operation will be December 31, 2045.
