Donors Will Need to Join Melinda French Gates in Furthering Women’s Equality to Make a Real Difference

Earlier this week, French Gates said she would give US$1 billion over the next two years to advance the power of women globally. The funds are being granted through Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, a nonprofit grant-making organization established in 2022, and will be managed by Pivotal Ventures, a limited liability corporation French Gates founded in 2015. 

The news, announced in a New York Times opinion piece on Tuesday, follows a separate commitment French Gates made in 2019 to give US$1 billion over 10 years to expand the power and influence of women in the U.S. 

The announcement also comes just two weeks after French Gates said she was leaving her position as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which she founded with her ex-husband. Through the agreement she reached with the foundation for her departure, which is effective June 7, French Gates was given US$12.5 billion “to commit to my work on behalf of women and families,” she said at the time. The couple divorced in 2021. 

It’s funding that is sorely needed. In 2020, U.S.-based organizations focused on women and girls received US$8.8 billion in charitable donations, according to the fifth annual Women’s and Girls Index from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, released in October 2023. Though the dollars given amounted to a 9.2% increase over 2019, it was less than the 11.3% jump in overall giving during that period, which was at the height of the pandemic. It also represented only 1.81% of overall giving in 2020—the latest data available—down from 1.84% a year earlier. 

French Gates quickly showed how she’ll work to even the playing field through her first US$1 billion commitment. It includes US$200 million to be granted in varying undisclosed amounts to “supercharge” the work of 16 organizations, “that are fighting in the U.S. to advance women’s power and protect their rights, including reproductive freedom,” according to a statement from Pivotal.

The organizations, which range from the Center for Reproductive Rights, to Community Change, the MomsRising Education Fund, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the National Women’s Law Center, will have freedom to spend the funds as needed, Pivotal said.

Another US$240 million will be distributed in US$20 million chunks to a dozen influential leaders in sports, academics, politics, and other fields across the globe, for them to grant to organizations “they consider to be doing urgent, impactful, and innovative work to improve women’s health and well-being in the U.S. and around the world,” Pivotal said. These individuals include Olympic athlete Allyson Felix, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, former New Zealand prime minister Jacina Ardern, and Gary Barker, founder of Equimumdo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice. 

French Gates will also award US$250 million to organizations identified through an “open call” this fall managed by Lever for Change, a MacArthur Foundation affiliate. 

“There’s no question the world would look different if it were run by people who considered women and girls a priority,” French Gates said in a statement. “I see this as a chance to move resources where they are urgently needed to advance women’s power in the U.S., to partner with people who can bring new perspectives into my work, and to let community-led organizations on the frontlines of women’s health and well-being around the world know that I know they’re out there and want to hear from them about how I can support their work.”

The breadth of her giving, and the fact she is addressing the changes needed to foster women’s equality and leadership in various ways, points to a systems-level approach reflecting two decades of “learning and growing in her philanthropy through the foundation,” says Jacqueline Ackerman, interim director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute. 

The amount of money she plans to give over the next two years—and the subsequent billions at her disposal to give—will improve the lives of many women and girls, and can be a game changer for the specific causes she is supporting, “but unless it’s paired with more giving, and long-term giving, by others around the world, it will be a point in time,” Ackerman says. 

French Gates, however, “is probably aware of this and will use her funds not just to enhance organizations she’s giving to but to influence others,” Ackerman says. “It’s reflected in her strategy of giving away funds [to global leaders] on her behalf.”

She’s also not giving money away in a vacuum.

“She’s using her voice. She’s advocating. She’s talking about political change. She’s aware of the limitations and she’s seeking to overcome those already,” Ackerman says. “I don’t think anyone can or should expect Melinda French Gates to make women and girls equal,” Ackerman says. “$12.5 billion won’t do it. But it’s a good start.” 

A hallmark of French Gates’ strategy is to side-step the top-down, metrics-driven approach of the Gates Foundation, and to instead trust the organizations she is funding. It’s a so-called trust-based strategy that’s gaining traction in philanthropic circles and could be influential to other funders. 

“She’s sending a message in terms of strategy,” says Karen Kardos, head of philanthropic advisory at Citi Private Bank. She’s saying, “we’re in this together,” and that she wants these organizations to succeed.

Unlike her previous US$1 billion pledge, French Gates is also signaling that global organizations and individuals need funding too, “which is just fantastic,” Kardos says. 

One advantage French Gates has is Pivotal Ventures, the LLC, which offers her the flexibility to advocate for the causes she cares about in addition to granting funds and investing in for-profit businesses that advance these same issues, Kardos says. 

“As a private foundation, you’re precluded from engaging in lobbying activities, you’re precluded from giving political donations, supporting [political action committees] or political candidates,” she says. “Whereas with the LLC, absolutely she can do that. … It’s a great vehicle because it does allow you many levers that you can pull to make change.”

Whether Kardos’ female clients will follow in French Gates’ footsteps or not remains to be seen. But, Kardos notes that newer philanthropists are more inclined to take the trust-based, partnership approach of French Gates, or of MacKenzie Scott, than older male-dominated philanthropic organizations are. Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given away US$17.3 billion to more than 2,300 nonprofits via large, unrestricted grants to a variety of large and small organizations since 2020.

French Gates’ path as a philanthropist actually mirrors the path of many female donors. In studying the intersection of gender and giving for about 15 years, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s research has found that women are more likely to give more to charity than men, they are likely to give higher amounts, and they are more likely to give to causes affecting women and girls, “which is very much aligned with Melinda French Gates’ philanthropy,” Ackerman says. 

Women, including French Gates, also tend to give more collaboratively, in partnership with others and with the organizations they support, and they understand that “those closest to the issues and problems are in the best position to understand the solution,” Ackerman says. 

“She is unique, her story is unique, but she has a lot in common with those women donors,” Ackerman says.