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Looking to the future
展望未来
Last year, boosted by the additional commitments for COVID response, we paid out $6.7 billion. This doesn't include hundreds of millions more in guarantees, forgivable loans, and other financing from our Strategic Investment Fund, which supports efforts like at-risk manufacturing of COVID vaccines. Since our founding 21 years ago, we have paid out more than $60 billion in grants. Every year for the past decade our payout has grown.
去年，加上为应对新冠疫情做出的承诺，基金会的赠款达到67亿美元。除此以外，基金会的战略投资基金还提供了数亿美元的担保、可免除贷款和其他融资，用来激励企业参与抗疫，比如开展具有一定商业风险的疫苗生产工作。自21年前成立以来，盖茨基金会已累计付出600多亿美元的赠款。过去十年，我们的赠款支出每年都在增长。
With a more than $50 billion endowment, Bill and Melinda's generous additional commitment of $15 billion last year, the expectation of future pledges, and the requirement to spend down our endowment after our co-founders' deaths, we are uniquely positioned to maintain a major role in the field of philanthropy for decades to come.
盖茨基金会目前有500多亿美元的资金，去年比尔和梅琳达还慷慨地追加了150亿美元的承诺，未来预计还有更多。此外，比尔和梅琳达要求基金会在他们过世后花掉全部的资金。这一切都决定了我们的独特性，意味着我们将在未来几十年在慈善领域持续发挥重要作用。
The scale of our giving must be matched by a deep sense of responsibility in how we distribute it, making sure those resources are stewarded and deployed as effectively as possible. That means staying focused on what matters – not the money out the door but the impact, which we measure in lives saved and opportunities provided for the poorest and most marginalized to achieve their full potential.
我们的捐赠规模需要有与之对等的高度责任感，只有这样才能确保这些资源尽可能得到有效管理和使用。这意味着我们必须关注赠款所能产生的实际影响，而不仅仅是把钱花出去。而衡量影响的指标是挽救生命的数量和为贫困人口及边缘群体提供充分发挥潜力的机会。
It also requires a clear and unambiguous commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
这还要求我们对多元、平等与包容有明确的、毫不含糊的承诺。
The journey the foundation has been on to diversify our own staff and investments is central to that commitment. Over the past two years, we have undertaken a systematic review of our work in this area, including drawing on surveys of employees, alumni, and partners that have both called out shortcomings and identified positive exemplars. As a result, we have now adopted a public DEI commitment statement and put in place a series of concrete plans to enhance our impact internally and externally. I know we still have a long way to go, but I am confident that we are more thoughtful and intentional about continuing to improve.
基金会一直努力实现员工队伍的多元化，并为此持续进行投入。在过去两年里，我们对这方面的工作进行了系统性评估，例如在员工、前员工和伙伴中开展调研，帮助我们发现问题和正面例子。在此基础上，基金会通过了一项多元、平等与包容承诺的公开声明，并推出了一系列具体计划，以增强我们这一承诺对内和对外的实际影响。我知道需要做的工作还有很多，但我相信基金会今后会更加全面、更有意识地持续做出改进。
When I was first appointed CEO, I flew to Omaha to have lunch with Warren. Among the many thoughtful pieces of advice he gave me was to remember my ABCs. This was Warren's way of telling me to watch out for three perennial threats that all large organizations face: arrogance, bureaucracy, and complacency.
我刚被任命为首席执行官时，曾飞到奥马哈和沃伦·巴菲特共进午餐。他给了我很多好建议，其中一条是记住“ABC”。沃伦是在提醒我注意所有大型机构面临的三种长期威胁：傲慢、官僚主义和自满（arrogance, bureaucracy和complacency）。
In a context where partners and grantees are rarely incentivized to give critical feedback, it is all too easy for a mission-driven foundation like ours to inadvertently create a self-reinforcing echo chamber that rationalizes our failures and oversells our successes. That in turn contributes to suspicion about the role of philanthropy and whether it really does make a difference.
如果合作伙伴和受赠方没有任何动力向我们提供批判性的反馈，那么像盖茨基金会这样一个以使命为导向的机构很容易在不经意间形成一个自我强化的回音室——将自己的失败合理化，并过度宣扬自己的成功。那将让人们更加怀疑慈善的作用，以及慈善能否带来真正的改变。
There is no simple solution to avoiding these pitfalls. It requires constant scrutiny – actively seeking out and being open to constructive criticism from diverse voices, transparently using our internal and external review processes to ruthlessly prioritize areas where our potential impact is greatest, resisting mission creep, and staying focused.
想避免这些陷阱没有简单的方案。我们需要不断地自我审视，积极寻求并虚心接受来自各方的建设性批判，公开透明地利用我们的内部和外部评估机制，不断论证我们能带来最大影响的领域，避免对使命的盲目追求，并时刻保持专注。
One of the great personal virtues of Bill and Melinda – and one of the key reasons I have devoted the bulk of my career to the Gates Foundation – is their willingness to change their minds. This is particularly true when compelling evidence reveals the potential for more effective ways to save and improve lives through our work. When we take risky bets, it is inevitable that some will fail. But rather than become more conservative, Bill and Melinda have chosen to fail fast, learn, and improve. From gender equality to K-12 education to climate adaptation investments as part of our agricultural development program, they have time and again approved new approaches and deprioritized older ones based on evidence. They and I will be actively looking to our new board members to help us be even more rigorous and focused so we can meet our mission and avoid the pitfalls Warren outlines.
比尔和梅琳达最大的优点之一，也是我把职业生涯的大部分贡献给盖茨基金会的一个主要原因就是：他们愿意改变。尤其当他们了解到，有充分证据表明我们的工作能以更有效的方式来挽救生命和改善生活时，这一点体现得更加明显。我们每次冒险投注时，总有一些尝试会以失败告终，但比尔和梅琳达从未因此变得更加保守，而是选择快速失败，然后从中学习，并实现改进。无论是性别平等、K-12教育，还是我们农业发展项目中的气候适应投资，他们一次又一次地在证据面前采纳新的方式方法，摒弃旧的做法。他们和我都积极地期待新的成员加入理事会，帮助我们变得更加严谨和专注，这样才能完成我们的使命，避开沃伦·巴菲特提到的陷阱。
As I begin my 16th year as an employee, my third as CEO, and my first as a board member, I am more convinced than ever that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has a unique role to play in helping create a better, fairer world. I further believe the expertise and credibility we have built over the past two decades – combined with the amazing commitment of our founders and co-chairs, the passion of our employees, and the support of our partners – mean that despite the challenges, our best days lie ahead of us. I look forward to reporting back in years to come on how we are doing.
今年是我加入基金会的第十六年、成为首席执行官的第三年、担任理事会成员的第一年。我比以往任何时候都更相信，比尔及梅琳达·盖茨基金会能够为帮助建立一个更加美好、更加公平的世界发挥独特的作用。我还相信，我们在过去二十年里积累的专长和信誉，加上我们的创始人和联席主席的坚定承诺、员工的热忱和合作伙伴的支持，意味着即使挑战依然存在，未来也一定会更加美好。我期待在未来几年里继续汇报我们的进展。
Mark Suzman
马克·苏斯曼
Chief Executive Officer Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
盖茨基金会首席执行官
January 26, 2022
2022年1月26日
