Melinda French Gates may help change that with only 2% of charitable giving going toward women, only two percentage points below what men receive as their share.

Melinda French Gates, founder of Pivotal and billionaire philanthropist, will visit Paris in 2021 for her inaugural conference as an independent billionaire philanthropist and advocate for women and girls since leaving Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year. Since leaving their organization earlier in 2018, French Gates has pledged more than one billion towards women and girls worldwide through Pivotal. By 2021 she plans on making Paris home of one more of her initiatives: she donated $100 Million towards women and girls worldwide since leaving her partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates’s Foundation earlier this year to pledge her own billion towards women and girls causes around the globe; LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP for your photo credit
Melinda French Gates has spent her adult life helping manage vast sums of money – and harnessed their power. However, this year has proven particularly noteworthy. Even among billionaire philanthropists she is enjoying an outstanding year. Three years after her divorce from Bill Gates, French Gates made headlines when she announced she would resign from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with $12.5 billion to take with her. Her sudden exit after nearly 25 years spent helping to build the foundation into one of America’s premier charitable institutions sent shockwaves through philanthropy circles. But now that French Gates can make all her own decisions, she has created an even larger presence for herself both within philanthropy as well as government policy and U.S. politics. Using her fortune and celebrity, French has spent one billion dollars of it to call attention to an issue close to her heart: systemic problems facing women and girls and an absence of funds needed to fix these issues.
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“There has long been an imbalance, so my hope is to fill it by dedicating resources, expertise and voice,” French Gates stated to NPR this week during an interview. On Wednesday, French Gates is holding an “open call” to nonprofits looking for grants from her Pivotal organization. Her main requirement for applicants: they should focus on issues surrounding women’s physical and psychological well-being. Pivotal and its partners say their goal is to identify nonprofits operating throughout the U.S. and world that may otherwise go unnoticed by French Gates – particularly those not typically invited by her to apply for her money. “Our aim is to identify organizations around the globe working quietly on women’s health issues – often out of public eye — and shine light on what they are doing so that other people may model or support it,” according to Cecilia Conrad of Lever for Change (the nonprofit overseeing French Gates and Pivotal’s “open call”) process. French Gates relies heavily on encouraging others to join her or emulate what is done and acknowledges that governments will need to play an integral part of fixing systemic societal problems rather than charitable billionaires alone.
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French Gates states: By acting alone and allocating her personal resources toward making substantial investments on behalf of women or minorities, French Gates hopes she is setting an example that other philanthropists or governments might follow in. French Gates has long drawn attention to an especially serious problem affecting women and girls: inequality that prevents half the population (women and girls) from receiving charitable support in America despite receiving less than two percent. French Gates recently made headlines by pledgeing $1 billion over two years towards issues impacting half of society – specifically women’s health issues. She already pledged $440 million, split among some U.S. nonprofits and several individuals who she asked to make grant decisions with it on her behalf. Under a recent initiative of hers she pledged another $250 million that will be distributed as grants ranging from $1 to $5 million each towards nonprofits who apply for her women’s health funds.
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French Gates hopes that by dedicating both resources and voice towards advocating for women and girls, she can “shine a light.” Here she can be seen participating in the Clinton Global Initiative held annually in New York.
Noam Galai/Getty Images for Clinton Global/Getty Images North America; Toggle Caption
Noam Galai/Getty Images North America for Clinton Global/Getty Images Inc
French Gates’ increased activity isn’t limited to writing charitable checks: she also advocates for access to abortion care and reproductive healthcare more generally; she’s supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid while giving to its campaign fund. Philanthropy experts agree that French Gates’ rising celebrity is already making an impactful statement about her chosen cause. “She will bring more attention to the issues and needs faced by women and girls both domestically and globally,” according to Elizabeth Dale, researcher and Frey Chair for Family Philanthropy at Johnson Center for Philanthropy. French Gates has long been recognized in business and policy circles due to her years of work at the Gates Foundation – cofounded with former husband Bill Gates – which now stands as an unprecedented global health charity that disbursed nearly $8 billion last year alone.
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Yet French Gates first rose to public notice with her divorce and subsequent decision to abandon one of America’s leading foundations, The David Geffen Memorial Fund (DGMF). French Gates has taken this role very seriously: in recent months she’s appeared in publications like Vanity Fair, New York Times and Late Show with Stephen Colbert as well as hosting her own YouTube series featuring interviews of Michelle Obama and Oprah on that platform. As she pursues her philanthropy efforts, she has also recruited other prominent names — Olympic athlete Allyson Felix and Hollywood director Ava DuVernay among them — into her endeavor. Each has pledged $20 million each to organizations dedicated to women. French Gates noted the global lack of investment into women’s health issues: “There must be greater attention paid to them.” She urges everyone involved to step up to this challenge by working to address it together. Why Roe v. Wade Shaped Her Political Involvement — and Women’s Health French Gates’ dedication to women’s health led her to enter into this year’s contentious presidential election process, after staying quiet about such matters in previous election cycles. French Gates has faced criticism both for her silence on abortion in the past and her presidential endorsements this year, yet according to NPR she was inspired to get involved this election cycle by the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v Wade. French Gates asserts that abortion bans and state restrictions have worsened women’s reproductive and other forms of healthcare across the U.S. “Any time anywhere that we enact legislation related to women’s health, there will be detrimental repercussions – and we are already witnessing it here in America,” French Gates asserts, yet she hopes that Republican applicants take up Harris’ offer of funding through her open call grantmaking initiative.
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“I am an independent voter,” French Gates reveals, and she supports bipartisan legislation and funding of national programs like NPR as an ideal for our country. Editor’s Note: NPR’s financial supporters include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.