Gates Divorce Shakes World's Biggest Family Philanthropy Engine

The news of Bill and Melinda Gates divorce has sent a shock wave through the world of philanthropy.

A young Bill and Melinda Gates, riding in the back of a truck, were on the continent for the first time in 1993 -- there to see animals, nature and discuss their priorities as a soon-to-be married couple. But what they saw sparked a broader conversation about the enormous fortune they'd already begun to amass. "It was our first sustained look at extreme poverty," Melinda said in a speech in Abu Dhabi in 2016. It was "the beginning of our education about the challenges facing the world's poorest people." It was also the beginning of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic behemoth the couple built over the course of their 27-year marriage, which ended this week. In their note announcing the split, they said they would continue running the foundation together. Despite this assurance, news of the divorce sent a shock wave through the world of philanthropy.