Giving Compass' Take:

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a $158 million commitment to expand their work in fighting US poverty. The effort will include closing data gaps and empowering local leaders.

• In this announcement, the Gates Foundation says it will not seek a "specific outcome" but rather support those already in the trenches working to create new opportunities for disadvantaged people. Those in the sector should follow how this model for collaboration works.

• To brush up on other Gates investments, here's what the org earmarked for the economic empowerment of women.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been investing in U.S. education for almost two decades because we believe that education offers a bridge to opportunity like no other. Through this work, we hear from teachers, principals, superintendents and others that how a child performs in the classroom has a lot to do with their life outside it.

Today, we are announcing a $158 million expansion of our work in the U.S. to increase opportunity for more Americans by trying to identify and remove some of the barriers that hold them back.

Relative to some of our other investment areas, we’re starting out small and with a different approach than we typically take. Our work will not be about driving a specific outcome like the eradication of a particular disease. Rather, we will focus on supporting the army of people already working to eliminate barriers to economic opportunity. They have experience and great ideas, and we have identified a few ways we think we can help them be even more effective.

Our investment will be directed to five areas over the next four years.

First, closing data gaps. A lack of good information about many of the fundamental factors contributing to poverty in America means that it is hard to diagnose barriers to opportunity and develop ways to eliminate or limit them ...

Second, helping local leaders and policymakers who are trying hard to respond to the daily realities of poverty get connected to each other, to state-of-the-art knowledge, and to funding by establishing nationwide partnerships and networks.

Third, making it easier for groups tackling the underlying issues of poverty to work together.

Read the full article about the Gates Foundation's new investment in fighting US poverty by Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at LinkedIn.