The world's third-richest man has moved on from Microsoft to take a full-time role in managing his Foundation, and recently penned his first annual letter around his goals and vision for the Gates Foundation - inspired, of course, by fellow billionaire (and the man at the top of the rich list) Warren Buffet.

The 10 sections delve into specific themes around the Foundation's programming priorities, with one devoted to the Role of Foundations. Selected quotes:

• These (foundation) investments are high-risk and high-reward. But the reward isn’t measured by financial gain, it’s measured by the number of lives saved or people lifted out of poverty.
• (The) lack of a natural feedback loop means that we as a foundation have to be even more careful in picking our goals and being honest with ourselves when we are not achieving them.
• Since we are in this for the long run, we need to develop credibility by the strength of our evidence, and by not claiming to know more than we do.

Nathaniel from Change.org has an excellent post on how to take these ideas one step further.

And speaking of evidence and evaluation, the Gates Foundation recently asked Melinda Tuan, the former head of the REDF, to author a report to on various approaches to integrating cost in measuring and/or estimating social value creation. The report titled Measuring and/or Estimating Social Value Creation looks at cost-benefit analysis and social return on investment, among other approaches. Check out the full report and detailed profiles of the approaches - both excellent pieces from a well-respected practitioner in the social enterprise space.

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