Melinda French Gates
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Microsoft, private investments
FUNDING AREAS: Global health and development, gender equity, U.S. education, advancing philanthropy
OVERVIEW: Melinda French Gates is among the world's leading philanthropists. She cofounded the Gates Foundation in 2000 with her then-husband, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and has made philanthropy her full-time focus.
In 2010, she, along with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, started the Giving Pledge, a campaign that encourages the wealthiest people in the world to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
She established Pivotal Ventures in 2015 with the aim of investing and incubating projects for the economic development of women and families in the U.S. and abroad.
The couple divorced in 2021; however, French Gates remained with the Gates Foundation until she resigned as co-chair in 2024. French Gates signaled her intention to establish a philanthropic identity separate from that of her ex-husband in an updated, post-divorce Giving Pledge letter, and she reiterated this in the social media post announcing her resignation from the Gates Foundation.
French Gates has since announced a $1 billion commitment to advance “women’s power globally” through 2026 with a focus on reproductive health and justice, among other interrelated issues.
BACKGROUND: Melinda French Gates joined Microsoft after graduating from Duke University with a degree in in computer science and economics. She held several positions at the company and contributed to the development or distribution of many of Microsoft’s signature products, including Expedia, Publisher, Money, Encarta and Word. She married CEO Bill Gates in 1994 and left the company two years later to focus on raising a family and, later, developing the largest philanthropic foundation in history. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama for her philanthropic efforts. Her 2019 memoir, “The Moment of Lift,” details the lives of women she met through her work at the Gates Foundation. French Gates divorced Bill Gates in 2021.
As French Gates moves away from the Gates Foundation, which will be renamed, her grantmaking will occur through Pivotal Ventures, where IP has further parsed funding interests.
ISSUES:
WOMEN AND GIRLS: French Gates’s company, Pivotal Ventures, makes investments and runs incubation programs that promote the economic development of women and girls. Pivotal Ventures has supported initiatives in the areas of technology education, career development, women’s participation in politics, paid family medical leave, caregiving and mental health. It has made grants to groups like ReflectUS, The Ascend Fund, Collective Future Fund, and Break Through Tech. In 2023, Pivotal Ventures committed up to $20 million to match gifts to help put women into leadership positions in their communities.
French Gates has also given to the Gender Fund, which seeks to advance equality and women’s leadership in Africa, Asia and Latin America through large, long-term and flexible funding. In 2021, the Gates Foundation committed $2.1 billion to promote gender equity in global pandemic recovery initiatives. The program’s priorities include reproductive healthcare, including expanding access to contraceptives, and job and leadership training for women and girls in developing countries.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH: While funding for reproductive health has previously focused largely on global health, French Gates announced a $1 billion dollar commitment to bringing that focus home to the U.S. through Pivotal Ventures. In her May 2024 NYTimes op-ed, French Gates states:
“While I have long focused on improving contraceptive access overseas, in the post-Dobbs era, I now feel compelled to support reproductive rights here at home. For too long, a lack of money has forced organizations fighting for women's rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offense. I want to help even the match.”
ADVANCING PHILANTHROPY: French Gates is a leading advocate of more philanthropic giving, especially by the world's wealthiest people. In addition to developing the Giving Pledge, the Pivotal Ventures has become a major grantmaker to organizations that research or promote philanthropy.
LOOKING FORWARD: French Gates announced via social media that she leaves the Gates Foundation with “an additional $12.5 billion to commit to [her] work on behalf of women and families.” It is likely that most, if not all, of this will go into Pivotal Ventures’ initiatives; however, it’s possible she will open up other avenues of giving as well. Only in her 50s, expect French Gates to remain a billionaire philanthropist to watch.
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