Gates, Allen Philanthropy Differs

Monday, November 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SEATTLE (AP) â€” While Bill Gates spends his billions immunizing children in sub-Saharan Africa, funding scholarships and helping the homeless, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is backing the search for extraterrestrial life.

Of course, Allen also gives millions to medical research and other mainstream charitable causes, but compared to Gates his major donations exhibit a flair for the dramatic.

``Interests that really shape his philanthropic identity are now being clearly articulated in the projects he funds,'' said Dwight Burlingame of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

``He has fun,'' Burlingame added.

Gates' $60 billion fortune generally puts him atop the Forbes magazine list of the world's wealthiest individuals, and he has made his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the world's richest with an endowment of some $22 billion.

Allen's $28 billion fortune usually keeps him among the top three in the world, according to Forbes' rankings. His six Paul G. Allen Foundations have made 174 grants this year, the largest a $20 million donation to the Seattle Public Library to buy books and to build a children's section.

Allen's recent eye-catching â€” or eye-popping â€” projects include:

â€” Experience Music Project, an interactive music museum whose wildly inventive, multihued, curved-metal body designed by architect Frank Gehry has drawn global gaze, if few flat-out raves from Seattle residents. The $240 million museum, which began as a tribute to Seattle-native and Allen guitar hero Jimi Hendrix, is run as a nonprofit foundation.

â€” The SETI Institute: Allen earlier this year donated $11.5 million to build an array of radio telescopes at Mountain View, Calif., part of a network the institute uses to search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

``He has diverse tastes,'' said Allen spokeswoman Susan Pierson-Brown.

Allen joined Gates in funding construction of the Seattle Public Library's new main building by architect Rem Koolhaas, whose copper, steel and glass design has been criticized locally for being too bold.

``It's a very interesting building,'' said Susan Coliton, manager of the Paul G. Allen Foundations. ``The innovative accent of the design was one of the factors that contributed to'' Allen's donation.

The Gates Foundation's work has included a $750 million pledge for a global children's vaccination program, and $1 billion for the Gates Millennium Scholars scholarship program.

The common theme in Gates' giving ``really is equity,'' said Gates Foundation spokesman Trevor Neilson. ``Right now we have unprecedented opportunities to improve people's lives. The goal of the foundation is to bring some of those opportunities in terms of health and education to people who might not have them.''

That theme springs naturally from Gates' travels and the global view he learned from his parents, Neilson said.

Allen's philanthropic interests began to take shape when he left Microsoft in 1983 after contracting Hodgkin's disease, which went into remission with extensive treatment.

``To be 30 years old and have that kind of shock â€” to face your mortality â€” really makes you feel like you should do some of the things that you haven't done yet,'' Allen says in a new book, ``Inside Out: Microsoft in Our Own Words.''

While some of the recipients are eye-catching, most of Allen's grants are made quietly.

``We don't self-promote our giving,'' said Coliton. ``Promotion of it and recognition for it is not the driving factor behind the philanthropy.''

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On the Net:

Allen Foundations: http://www.paulallen.com/foundations/main.asp

Gates Foundation: http://gatesfoundation.org