Less than 2% of philanthropic giving goes to women and girls. Can Melinda French Gates change that?

Melinda French Gates has a long history of supporting the women’s movement, but it’s her new high-profile funding commitments that could finally change women’s groups’ long-running lament that less than 2% of philanthropic giving in the United States directly benefits women and women. girls.

That 2% cap could be broken thanks to French Gates’ $1 billion pledge announced Tuesday and the momentum that will build as others join her, said Jacqueline Ackerman, interim director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Lilly Indiana University Family School of Philanthropy. The institute has been researching giving to women and girls since 2019 and found that while the total amount has increased over the years, it has never exceeded 2% of total charitable dollars. In 2020, the most recent year of WPI’s analysis, women and girls received $8.8 billion of the total $471.4 billion given to charities.

“One donor has the potential to make a difference,” Ackerman said. “But to sustain that in the long term, to change the numbers for more than just one or two years, you really have to inspire and engage others. part of a movement.

French Gates has been a philanthropist for decades, as a co-founder of the bill & Twenty years ago, Melinda Gates Foundation and then, with the organization she founded in 2015, Pivotal Ventures. Ackerman said her philanthropy follows many trends in the way women give, in that they are more likely to use all of their resources, including philanthropic donations, building a strong network, advocating for the causes they care about publicly, and , in the case of French Gates, , for-profit investments.

“Melinda French Gates has used tools of collaborative giving in the past, used her voice and her network and her platform to advocate for women and girls,” Ackerman said. “And so there is every indication that she knows this and that she does intend to use her platform to encourage more donations from others.”

Earlier this month, French Gates announced she was leaving the Gates Foundation and as part of that departure, she received $12 billion from Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder and her ex-husband, for her philanthropy going forward.

The Associated Press will receive financial support for reporting in Africa through the bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for reporting on women in the workforce and state governments from Pivotal Ventures. The Gates Foundation also provides funding to the Women’s Philanthropy Institute.

French Gates’ latest pledge to spend $1 billion by the end of 2026 builds on previous major commitments and years of funding for organizations working on a range of issues related to women and girls. French Gates has funded the Crystal Echo Hawk-founded organization IllumiNative, which supports Native American power through movement building and research.

Earlier this month, Echo Hawk said she received an email directly from French Gates asking her to be one of twelve people to receive $20 million and donate it however they want.

As part of this, Echo Hawk will receive support from the National Philanthropic Trust, which will manage and distribute the funds, to explore the landscape of opportunities to support Indigenous women and girls. She sees that research as one of the crucial and important outcomes of French Gates’ efforts, in addition to the direct financial support to her community.

“This is such an important learning opportunity,” Echo Hawk said. “It’s not just about money. It’s about building partnerships and understanding.”

French Gates has experience working with other donors, as she did in 2020 in a competition that gave away $40 million to four organizations to accelerate progress toward gender equality in the United States. That funding was raised by author and billionaire MacKenzie Scott and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. She has also donated more than $5 million to the organization’s matching program, Women Moving Millions, to encourage its members to resume giving to advance women’s power and influence.

“What’s different is the magnitude of resources she’s talking about moving,” said Sarah Haacke Byrd, CEO of Women Moving Millions. She pointed out that the small percentage of funding going to women and girls hinders the ability of organizations and the movement to respond quickly and implement long-term strategies.

Recipient organizations declined to disclose the size of the grants they received from French Gates. But in all areas, from the National Domestic Workers Alliance to the Ms. Foundation for Women, grantees described that the funding came at a time of great threat to women’s rights and power, but also when activism, momentum and awareness for their rights the movement is increasing.

“In our fight to protect free and fair elections, we face a well-funded, well-coordinated anti-democracy machine that spreads disinformation and runs dangerous candidates for office,” said Joanna Lydgate, co-founder and CEO of States United Democracy Center, another recipient of new funding from Pivotal Ventures.

Ai-jen Poo president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, said she thinks it will be her generation that will usher in a new social safety net that provides paid leave so workers can care for family members, creates affordable childcare and pays domestic workers for livelihood. wage. She sees French Gates’ commitment as a call to action and an inspiration for others to follow.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, in fact I expect many more women will come forward and, in whatever capacity they are in, courageously rise to this moment,” she said.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits is supported by the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.