The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation(an endowed institution or charity) (B&MGF or the Gates Foundation) is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The foundation is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family". The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance health care(the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions) and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand(to change (something) from a smaller form and/or size to a larger one) educational opportunities and access(a way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage) to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees(one who is intrusted with property for the benefit of another): Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Raikes. It has an endowment(the invested funds of a not-for-profit institution) of US$35.1 billion as of October 1, 2008. The size of the foundation and the way it seeks(to try to find, to look for, to search) to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution in global philanthropy(benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind), though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations. In 2007 its founders were ranked as the second most generous(willing to give and share unsparingly) philantropist(very generous person) in America.