The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made more than $2.8 million worth of grants to The Texas Tribune since 2015, according to data released by the foundation on April 1, 2023.
"To elevate the discussion and public engagement on higher education issues in Texas through in-depth reporting and public events," is the purpose listed by the foundation for the first grant to The Texas Tribune, committed in September 2018 in the amount of $809,521.
The most recent grant to the publication was committed by the Gates Foundation in February 2022 in the amount of $504,123 to, "to increase public awareness and engagement of education issues in Texas."
All told, according to the data, the foundation's grants to The Texas Tribune totaled $2,821,286 between 2018 and 2022.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a private foundation established in 2000 by Bill and Melinda Gates with a primary focus on global health and development, education, and public policy. 2. As of 2021, the foundation has an endowment of more $50 billion and has distributed over $54 billion in grants since its inception. In November 2021, the foundation announced a new CEO, Mark Suzman, who had previously served as the foundation's president of global policy and advocacy, succeeding the retiring CEO, Susan Desmond-Hellmann.
The Texas Tribune is a non-profit news website located in Austin, Texas that focuses on politics and public policy. The foundation of The Texas Tribune was created in 2009 by venture capitalist John Thornton and journalists Evan Smith and Ross Ramsey. Thornton and his wife seeded the venture with $1 million, and additional funding came from various foundations and philanthropists.
Following is a breakdown of the Gates Foundation's grants to The Texas Tribune between 2018 and 2022:
