# No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/gates-foundation-no-such-thing-as-free-gift/
- Published: 2016-10-28T17:40:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, spending 
more on global health than many national governments. But is it doing what it claims?
And at what cost — to democracy, to public health systems, and to the communities
it says it serves? University of Essex sociologist Linsey McGoey’s forensically 
researched investigation puts the new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope.**

When Bill and Melinda Gates began giving away their vast fortune, it was widely 
celebrated as enlightened generosity on an unprecedented scale. Today, the Bill 
and Melinda Gates Foundation funds global health programmes, agricultural development
in Africa, and education reform across the United States. It often spends more than
the governments of the countries in whose name it acts.

For many, this is philanthropy at its finest. For Linsey McGoey, it raises urgent
and largely unasked questions about power, accountability, and democratic legitimacy.

_No Such Thing as a Free Gift_ is a work of careful, historically grounded sociology.
McGoey traces the history of American mega-philanthropy from Andrew Carnegie and
John D. Rockefeller through to the present day, showing how the tax and legal frameworks
that made large-scale charitable foundations possible were constructed. And how 
the same frameworks have been used to advance private interests under the cover 
of public good.

 * [**Buy the book**](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1784786233?tag=219)

She places the Gates Foundation in this long context, and then examines its record
in global health, agriculture, and education with meticulous attention to evidence.

## Not conspiracy but a concentration of power

What she finds is not conspiracy but something in some ways more troubling: a set
of structural incentives that consistently lead large philanthropic institutions
to concentrate power, displace local knowledge and democratic decision-making, and
create dependencies that outlast any given programme.

![No Such Thing As A Free Gift, by Linsey McGoey (book cover)](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2026/03/no-such-thing-as-a-free-gift-linsey-mcgoey-3d-cover.webp)

The Gates Foundation’s agricultural initiatives in Africa have benefited US agribusiness;
its education reform agenda in the United States has advanced the interests of its
corporate partners; its health funding has, at times, distorted the priorities of
the World Health Organization.

McGoey does not argue that Gates is malevolent: she argues that the system itself
is the problem.

Since the book’s first publication in 2015, its arguments have gained new relevance.
Questions about the accountability of philanthropic mega-foundations have moved 
from the margins to the mainstream of public debate, and the Gates Foundation’s 
interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic brought its influence, and its limitations,
into sharp relief. _No Such Thing as a Free Gift_ remains the most rigorous and 
complete examination of that influence yet published.

## About Linsey McGoey

Linsey McGoey is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex.
She has been a member of the World Health Organization’s expert steering group on
the impact of a human rights-based approach to health, and has previously held research
fellowships at the University of Oxford.

She has written for the _Guardian_, _Open Democracy_, the _Spectator_, and _Globe
and Mail_. Her subsequent book, _The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the
World_, was published in 2019.

## **Reviews**

> “The charitable model represented by the Gates Foundation is failing to address
> the root causes of inequality and ecological crisis. This path-breaking book is
> a sorely needed, historically grounded investigation into the difference between
> philanthropy and justice.”
> **Naomi Klein, author of _This Changes Everything_ 
> and _The Shock Doctrine_**

> “Impeccably researched and beautifully written — the best and most complete examination
> of the Gates Foundation and the workings of big philanthropy. A must-read for 
> anyone concerned with where the world is heading.”
> **Michael Edwards, Distinguished
> Senior Fellow, Demos**

> “A brave, intelligent and important book that raises vital questions about the
> full impact of a key source of the world’s public health funding.”
> **Arthur Caplan,
> New York University**

> “A lively and well-argued antidote to the comfortable but superficial assumption
> that giving money away is, by definition, good.” 
> _**Third Sector**_

> “Rather than spin far-fetched conspiracy theories, she simply shows what the oligarchs
> are doing in plain sight, which is frightening enough.” 
> **Jonathan Rose, author
> of _The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes_**

## Related books on UK Fundraising

 * _Winners Take All_ (Giridharadas) for a broader critique of elite philanthropy;
 * _[Philanthrocapitalism](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/09/27/amazon-239/)_ (Bishop&
   Green) for the case in favour;
 * _[Dark Money](https://fundraising.co.uk/books/dark-money/)_ (Mayer) for the political
   weaponisation of philanthropic structures;
 * _Limitarianism_ (Robeyns) for the philosophical foundations.

**Cover image:** [https://www.versobooks.com/products/129-no-such-thing-as-a-free-gift](https://www.versobooks.com/products/129-no-such-thing-as-a-free-gift)