Gates Foundation Trust

Our foundation makes grants and strategic investments that align with our mission and our priority focus areas. The money for that activity—our endowment—is held by the Gates Foundation Trust. This two-entity structure allows us to keep our program work separate from decisions about investing our assets and ensures that our staff can focus solely on our mission.

How the trust works

Our endowment has been funded by our co-founders, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett, the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Among the three, Bill and Warren continue to make contributions to the endowment. Bill is the trustee of the Gates Foundation Trust, and the endowment funds are managed by Cascade Asset Management Company, whose independent investment managers are not directly affiliated with the foundation. Warren has no involvement in the investment of endowment funds, including any decisions regarding Berkshire Hathaway stock.

With the exception of Bill, the foundation’s board and staff have no influence over trust investment decisions and no visibility into the trust’s investment strategies or holdings other than what is publicly available via required public disclosures (such as the foundation’s annual tax return, Form 990-PF).

In May 2025, Bill announced that the foundation would close its doors permanently on December 31, 2045, and that in the interim he would dedicate virtually all of his remaining personal wealth to fund foundation efforts to save and improve lives. With Bill’s additional contributions to the endowment, between 2025 and 2045 we will be able to give roughly double the amount we gave in our first 25 years.