The big giver - where Bill Gates' money goes

Bill Gates

One of the world's "mega-donors" is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, set up by the Microsoft founder in Seattle in January 2000.

The foundation aims to promote "greater equity" in three international fields - health, education, public libraries - and one local to the United States, the support of "at-risk" families in Washington state and Oregon.

The foundation's website puts its endowment at US$27 billion ($38 billion), and says about 60 per cent of its grants go to international efforts.

An example is the US$42.6 million pledged last month to a non-profit drug company in San Francisco that aims to develop drugs to treat Third World diseases.

That money will go towards efforts to produce cheaper treatments for malaria.

Also last year, it gave US$47 million in one of a series of grants to help prevent the spread of Aids in India.

The foundation's website cites these examples:

* Gates Millennium Scholars Programme, United Negro College Fund, US$1 billion

* The Vaccine Fund, US$750 million

* International Aids Vaccine Initiative, US $126.5 million