Melinda Gates wants to change the world. With her husband, Bill, she just might do it.

In Central Seattle sits a serene glass compound, surrounded by trees, blending immaculately into the landscape. At the entrance the sound of chirping birds is so intense, a visitor could be excused for thinking it was piped in. Because this, after all, is the house that Microsoft built, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Within this temple of good deeds (and at posts around the world) works a staff of 1,200, with an endowment of $40 billion. (Since the inception of the foundation in 2000, it has given away $30.1 billion in grants.) There are portraits of mothers and babies on the walls, a massive tapestry by Ghanian artist El Anatsui, and an airy communal cafeteria. Not to mention a front-desk staffer who says with a smile, “No, they are actual birds.”

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