Melinda French Gates left the Gates Foundation with $12.5 billion. She’s betting it on the problems nobody else wants to fund

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.

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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.

Her approach has included funding organisations focused on women’s rights, reproductive freedom, domestic workers and political participation, while also giving individual leaders substantial funds to direct toward priorities in their own communities. The strategy reflects a broader focus on issues that can be overlooked even when their impact is widespread.

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Why childcare and unpaid work remain central to her agenda

One issue that has remained closely associated with French Gates’ work is unpaid care work. Women around the world continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of childcare, household work and caregiving.

Melinda French Gates has described the resulting problem as “time poverty”, the lack of time and flexibility that can limit women’s ability to study, work, earn and participate in public life.

That is why her philanthropy has increasingly looked beyond traditional empowerment programmes and toward areas such as childcare, family support and economic opportunity.

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$215 million for women’s health, including menopause

In June 2026, French Gates announced another $215 million commitment to women’s health through Pivotal. The funding covers areas including contraceptive access, maternal care, mental health and health issues affecting women in midlife, including menopause.

Her $1 billion commitment includes $200 million to US organizations, $20 million each to 12 global leaders, and a $250 million open call for women's health worldwide. A further $215 million announced in June 2026 targets reproductive and midlife health, including menopause, bringing her women's health total to roughly $600 million in two years.

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The latest commitment pushed her total philanthropic funding for women’s health to more than $600 million over two years, according to Pivotal.

French Gates said: “The right care at the right time can change everything for a woman. But for far too long, women’s health care has been under-researched and overlooked.”

Melinda French Gates and Olivia Rodrigo’s $20 million women’s health effort

Her focus also featured prominently at Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival in California in August 2026. The women-centred event raised $20 million for organisations working on women’s well-being and related causes, with French Gates contributing an additional $10 million through Pivotal.

From reproductive health to menopause, childcare and domestic workers, French Gates’ post-Gates Foundation philanthropy is increasingly defined by a clear theme: putting significant resources behind problems that have historically struggled to attract enough attention or funding.