Melinda French Gates walked away from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with $12.5 billion after stepping down in 2024. With billions to deploy, she could have spread her fortune across the world’s most familiar philanthropic causes. Instead, French Gates has chosen a more concentrated and different path — putting much of her giving behind women and girls, women’s health, childcare, reproductive rights and other problems that have long struggled for funding and attention.
Rather than spreading the money across a broad list of causes, French Gates has continued to concentrate much of her giving on women and girls, particularly areas that have historically received less attention and funding.
Melinda French Gates’ $1 billion commitment to women and girls
In 2024, French Gates announced that she would commit $1 billion over two years to people and organisations working to advance women’s power and influence in the US and around the world. The pledge expanded work she had already been pursuing through Pivotal, the organisation she founded in 2015.
