Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett set our overarching grantmaking priorities, then our three programs devise strategies to meet specific goals in these areas.
To create these strategies, we have developed a set of processes that help us decide how to spend our time, effort, and money to accomplish our goals for as many people as possible. Together, these processes form a continuous cycle with four stages: develop strategy, make grants, measure progress, and adjust strategy.
This cycle is evolving and improving as we get better at learning from our grantees and partners. And we are committed to reporting what we are learning at key stages of the grantmaking process.
We are happy to share with grantees and partners a document titled, The Strategy Lifecycle: a Guide, which describes in detail how we develop and refine strategy at the foundation, building on lessons learned since we first rolled out a lifecycle in April 2007. This Guide includes the guidelines and templates used by foundation staff to prepare the work that falls within the strategy lifecycle and annual planning (budgeting) processes.