PHA-Exchange> Fw: Gates Foundation to review investments' social impact

[Claudio]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Claudio" <claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn>
To: "pha-exch" <pha-exchange at lists.kabissa.org>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 9:35 PM
Subject: Gates Foundation to review investments' social impact


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>> From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
>>
>> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0701110183jan11,1,7496332.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
>>
>> Gates Foundation to review investments' social impact
>>
>> By Charles Piller
>> Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
>> Published January 11, 2007
>>
>> The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it would 
>> review its investments to
>> determine whether its holdings are socially responsible.
>>
>> In addition to what it called a continuing review of "our approach to 
>> investments," the foundation
>> said on its Web site, "we will review other strategies that can fulfill a 
>> social responsibility
>> role, both in terms of their aspirations and in understanding the impact 
>> that they may have.
>>
>> "We will also formalize the process by which Bill and Melinda Gates 
>> analyze and review these issues."
>>
>> The announcement came two days after the Los Angeles Times published the 
>> second article in a
>> two-part investigation showing that the foundation reaps vast financial 
>> gains every year from
>> investments that contravene its good works.
>>
>> The Los Angeles Times found that the organization, led and funded by the 
>> chairman of Microsoft Corp.
>> and his wife, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in companies that 
>> contribute to the problems
>> of health, housing and social welfare that the foundation tries to solve.
>>
>> Using the most recent data available, the Times found that hundreds of 
>> Gates Foundation
>> investments--totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41 percent of its assets, 
>> not including U.S. and
>> foreign government securities--have been in companies that countered the 
>> foundation's charitable
>> goals or socially concerned philosophy.
>>
>> During the investigation, the foundation did not respond to questions 
>> from the Times about whether
>> it might change its investment policies.
>>
>> Nor did it respond to questions about its holdings in specific companies 
>> flagged by services that
>> analyze corporate behavior for failing tests of social responsibility in 
>> areas such as environmental
>> stewardship and human rights.
>>
>> Similarly, on Wednesday, the Gates Foundation would not respond to 
>> inquiries from the Times.
>>
>> But in an interview Tuesday with The Seattle Times, Cheryl Scott, chief 
>> operating officer of the
>> foundation, said it would determine whether it should pull its money out 
>> of companies that harm society.
>>
>> She told the Seattle newspaper that the foundation's current method of 
>> investing its assets was "not
>> 100 percent effective."
>>
>> This year, for the first time, Scott said, the foundation will review 
>> whether "there are cases
>> simply where the situation is so egregious it will cause us not to 
>> invest."
>>
>> Scott denied to The Seattle Times that the changes in how the 
>> foundation's investments will be
>> handled were in response to adverse publicity.
>>
>> "This has been an issue that has been top of line for a long time and 
>> will continue to be," she said.
>>
>> As of 2005, the Gates Foundation had about $35 billion in assets, by far 
>> the largest endowment of
>> any foundation. In June, billionaire Warren Buffett, who recently became 
>> a trustee of the Gates
>> Foundation, pledged to add $31 billion more in installments.
>>
>> Citing the size of the Gates Foundation, philanthropy experts applauded 
>> the change.
>>
>> "When the No. 1 foundation is rethinking something, others are going to 
>> look at it more carefully,"
>> said Douglas Bauer, senior vice president of Rockefeller Philanthropy 
>> Advisors, a non-profit group
>> that counsels foundations.
>>
>>
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