Five months after Melinda French Gates made the decision to cut ties with the Gates Foundation, the details of the billionaire’s philanthropic ambitions are beginning to take shape. French Gates today (Oct. 9) launched Action for Women’s Health, a $250 million open call for organizations focused on improving the mental and physical health of women.
The initiative is part of French Gates’ broader pledge to support women’s rights and will dole out grants through her charitable vehicle, Pivotal Ventures. “Women’s health continues to be an afterthought and it’s impacting the health of our families, our communities, our economies,” said French Gates in a video accompanying today’s announcement. “Thankfully, there are so many organizations around the world working to change that.”
For decades, French Gates’ philanthropy centered upon the Gates Foundation, the 24-year-old foundation she ran alongside her former husband and Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates. One of the largest in the world with an endowment of $75.2 billion as of 2023, the organization has given some $77.6 billion to causes like poverty, health and inequality. French Gates, who finalized her divorce from Gates in 2021, left the foundation earlier this year to refocus her philanthropic mission on supporting underrepresented groups.
Where is Melinda French Gates funneling her fortune?
French Gates’ charitable endeavors are funded by $12.8 billion from Gates (when she parted ways with the Gates Foundation) and her own net worth of $29 billion.
As announced in May, French Gates’ initial philanthropic commitment will consist of a $1 billion pledge to support women and their families over the next two years. In addition to the $250 million open call, this commitment will consist of $200 million given to ten organizations focused on bolstering women’s power and another $240 million granted to a dozen prominent individuals to distribute across charities working to improve women’s health.
Organizations around the globe are invited to apply before Dec. 3 for Action for Women’s Health, granted they have a background in improving women’s health and a focus on centering equity. The open call will be managed by Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that hosts charitable challenges. Lever for Change has previously been used by the likes of MacKenzie Scott, who partnered with the nonprofit to award $640 million in grants in March.
“There’s so much we don’t know about women’s mental and physical health, but the data we do have shows that women are being neglected,” said Pivotal Ventures in a statement, pointing to a January report from the World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute that revealed women spend 25 percent more of their lives in poor health compared to men. The initiative’s grants will emphasize solutions towards high rates of malnutrition, depression and anxiety in women and girls, alongside preventable pregnancy and childbirth-related medical complications.
French Gates has been vocal about her belief in supporting female health and, in particular, bolstering the efforts of abortion rights organizations. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade led to “devastating impacts,” she told Bloomberg in an interview published today. “I would like to see the U.S. never, never roll back a law—or any country—related to women’s health.”
