American banker J.P. Morgan once said there are two reasons for a person to do what they do: a good reason, and the real reason.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates may have side-stepped questions from New York Times reporter Jean Strouse regarding his philanthropic intentions, but he doesn't really have to answer because "what he is doing is more important than why," the newspaper reports in a special April 16 feature.

"One of the ways the very rich are different from you and me is that they become public property," Strouse wrote. "Before (Bill Gates) began giving away money, people complained that he was a miser. Now that he is giving away money, they complain that he's doing it too late, that he isn't giving enough, that he hasn't a clue about what he's getting into, that the projects he is financing are too conservative, too liberal, too big, too small, too safe, too risky, too conventional, too splashy. Or they say he's only doing it to avoid taxes, or to expand Microsoft's markets, or, especially, to improve his image in light of the government's high-profile antitrust suit."

Whatever the public perception, these are the facts: Earlier this year the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation became the world's largest trust, with assets of $21.8 billion.

Gates has been dropping in donations to the foundation's endowment $5 billion at a time, and although he reportedly lost around $13 billion in last week's stock market plunge the foundation's endowment is still in one piece. That's because all stock it receives from Microsoft is immediately liquidated. Even so, what influence the lawsuit will have on the foundation remains unclear, the newspaper reports.

To demonstrate how Gates and his organization are criticized for their giving habits, the foundation announced last fall it had committed $1 billion -- to be granted during the next 20 years -- to provide scholarships for minority students. The program would be administered by the United Negro College Fund.

One month after the announcement, the conservative Weekly Standard publication criticized the move, saying the Gates Foundation was an end run around anti-affirmative-action policies being adopted around the country, the newspaper reports.

Detractors or not, Gates plugs on, trying to help people however he can. One of his foundation's largest efforts is in funding vaccine research and making sure medical supplies get to regions desperate for them. The Times reports it can take as long as 15 years for basic vaccines, such as those against measles, polio, or whooping cough, to get to the citizens of poor countries.

Another ambitious program is the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), which finds promising AIDS vaccine candidates and puts them on a "fast-track" to clinical trials after solidifying the deal with drug makers and third-world countries. Foundation officials hope to find a vaccination that will stop HIV/AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is believed more people will die from the disease in the next 10 years than the number of people killed in all of the 20th century wars combined, the newspaper reports.

The old saying that giving money away is more difficult than earning it was suggested throughout Strouse's article, with various foundation officials citing their fears about mismanagement of unheard-of endowment contributions. Strouse told the story of a time when the World Health Organization granted funding to spray houses with DDT to control malaria. The mosquito population was in fact controlled by the effort, but thousands of cats died as an indirect result. That caused the rat population to explode, which boosted the chance of being infected with the plague or typhus.

The Gates Foundation channels its money through existing organizations, rather than directly financing health services, which may cut back on the sustained risk of misappropriating funds. So far, it has managed to bring about a better understanding of the importance of using contraceptives, single-use syringes and nutritional supplements in developing nations worldwide.

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