The Gates Foundation and the New Donor Culture

• In Event: 239 - Regular Session. Development

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to Robin Rogers's call (2015) for more sociological analysis of the new philanthropy by exploring the Gates Foundation's recent foray into international agricultural development. A key question I address is how the Foundation has come to have such an enormous influence in a field it recently entered and in which it is not the largest funder. The literature has long argued that a crucial source of the philanthropic sector's power is its ability to channel funds toward its own interests, unconstrained by the need for public accountability. Yet it isn't simply deep pockets and lack of accountability that make the Gates Foundation such an influential actor. Rather, it is a combination of its resources and the internal culture of the organization, as reflected in its strategic business orientation, who it hires, how it manages grantees, and the missionary zeal with which staff carry out their work. Unencumbered by the constraints of the old philanthropic culture, the BMGF has built itself anew, in tune with the neoliberal managerial zeitgeist of the times. It has married the entrepreneurial culture of a start-up company (and Microsoft) to the strategic-management ideology now dominant in the business (and development) world. The result is a highly strategic grantmaking machine with the focus of a multinational firm seeking to be 'first to market' with its game changing technologies. In making this argument, I draw attention to the relationship between a foundation's organizational characteristics and culture and the power it wields in society.

Author

• Rachel Schurman, University of Minnesota