The Gates Foundation is indeed accomplishing great good with its huge endowment, but one wonders if its acknowledged need for more transparency could not be enhanced with a comprehensive annual report, such as the large, established foundations — for example, Rockefeller, Ford or Carnegie — made broadly available [“CEO offers peek inside workings of Gates Foundation,” Local News, May 23].
Along with more information about the Gates Foundation’s grants and goals, it would also help to publicize background information about members of its board of directors and advisers who decide on broad policies and programs.
In a real sense, the work of foundations, whose existence is entirely dependent on the generous tax-code provisions for the encouragement of charitable giving (the general welfare clause of our Constitution), implies accountability to the electorate. Foundations are one of the glories of the Anglo-American system of democratic government.
James Huntley, Sequim