--- title: So How Much Is Bill Gates's 100,000 Chicken Donation Actually Worth? description: Everyone has been clucking about Bill Gates donation of 100,000 chickens. But how much money were they worth? authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-06-17T19:36:13.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:23:59.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - charitable giving - Donations - pubdesk word_count: 442 canonical: https://money.com/bill-gates-chicken-100000-donation-value-worth/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Heifer International Gates](https://img.money.com/2016/06/15811878598_17cb62e483_o.jpg) Like many older office workers wanting to get back to the Earth, Bill Gates has gotten into the idea of raising chickens. "Melinda and I are excited about chickens," he [recently wrote](https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/741271450993229824). But this is Bill Gates, not Bill from accounting, so he's been going *deep,* and has created an initiative called "Coop Dreams" to donate 100,000 chickens to various parts of the world. Nice as this idea is (read more about their donations [here](https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens) and [here](https://medium.com/bill-melinda-gates-foundation/the-small-animal-thats-making-a-big-difference-for-women-in-the-developing-world-15d31dca2cc2?linkId=25395282#.frosgqj24)), Gates has found that no good deed goes unpunished. The plan has run afoul of officials [in Bolivia](https://time.com/4372930/bolivia-chicken-bill-gates-donation/), who reported being offended by the Gates's attempted chicken donation. According to the [*Financial Times*](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/06d25074-335b-11e6-bda0-04585c31b153.html), César Cocarico, Bolivia's minister of land and rural development, found it "offensive" that Gates assumed the country was full of people "in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce." He respectfully asked Gates or an apology, citing the country's vibrant economy and ability to actually *export* chickens. As The Verge [has noted](http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bolivia-2016-Highest-Projected-GDP-in-South-America--20160414-0038.html), Bolivia has the best economic growth in South America, according to the IMF. ***Read Next*: [Why I Became a Backyard Chicken Farmer](https://money.com/backyard-chickens-cost/)** But unlike all the ridiculous puns about "ruffled feathers," one thing has been missing from the media coverage: How much is a gift of 100,000 chickens actually worth. It sounds like a lot of chickens, but I bought 12 eggs for $4 recently, and they were organic. Gates partnered with the Heifer project, which allows people to donate animals to people who need them. Heifer's unit of measure for chickens, however, is not discrete, it's a "flock of chicks," which could mean anywhere between [10 to 50](https://shop.heifer.org/seasonal/chick-bundle.html) according to their definition. We also know that a flock costs $20 via Heifer. So 100,000 divided by 10 to 50 is 10,000 to 2,000. That means 100,000 chicks through Heifer costs a donor $40,000 to $200,000. (We're assuming Heifer would donate chicks and not chickens, because there isn't an option to donate chickens—and the chicks *should* become chickens.) Interestingly, Gates notes in his [GatesNotes](https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens) that a single chicken usually sells for $5 in West Africa. So after maturity, the chickens should be worth approximately $500,000 on the ground there. The value of chickens is different everywhere. For comparison, your neighbor's backyard chickens likely [cost somewhere between $15 and $20](http://www.mypetchicken.com/about-chickens/frequently-asked-questions.aspx). ***Read Next:* [Bill Gates Is Once Again the Richest Person in the World](https://money.com/bill-gates-richest-person-on-earth-2016/)** Heifer International has not responded to our inquiries as of publishing this post, but from their available materials it seems that Bill and Melinda Gates's donation—while generous—was hardly newsworthy considering their largesse. The [Gates Foundation](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Foundation-Factsheet) paid out $4.2 billion in direct grantee support last year. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-chicken-100000-donation-value-worth/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Making Money", "item": "https://money.com/making-money/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "So How Much Is Bill Gates's 100,000 Chicken Donation Actually Worth?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-chicken-100000-donation-value-worth/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/bill-gates-chicken-100000-donation-value-worth/", "name": "So How Much Is Bill Gates's 100,000 Chicken Donation Actually Worth?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-17T19:36:13.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-chicken-100000-donation-value-worth/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-chicken-100000-donation-value-worth/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:23:59.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "So How Much Is Bill Gates's 100,000 Chicken Donation Actually Worth?", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/15811878598_17cb62e483_o.jpg", "width": 4256, "height": 2832, "caption": "Heifer International Gates" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-17T19:36:13.000Z", "description": "Everyone has been clucking about Bill Gates donation of 100,000 chickens. 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