Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest man and an advocate of philanthropic giving, has turned to his 16.2 million Twitter followers to solicit ideas for how to give away $50,000.

Gates was responding to a DealBook article on college courses in philanthropy that require students to give away real money to no-profit organisations.

Gates has reduced his own giving to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation over the last decade, DealBook reported last month. A spokesman for Gates pointed to the challenge of distributing big donations where they can be most effective.

Giving away $50,000 is easier than giving away $40.2 billion, and Twitter users made a number of suggestions from the personal to the philanthropic.

New York Times