Melinda French Gates to resign from Gates Foundation

Melinda French Gates is leaving the behemoth foundation she and her former husband Bill Gates founded nearly a quarter-century ago to devote herself fully to her work on behalf of women and girls, which has been the focus of much of her recent philanthropy.

Her move, announced Monday, marks the end of an era for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — henceforth known as the Gates Foundation — which she and her former husband founded in 2000 and transformed into a juggernaut that shook up the world of philanthropy and reshaped the fields of global public health and development.

“After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” French Gates, 59, said in a post on X. She added that the foundation was “in strong shape,” and that it was the right time for her to move “into the next chapter of my philanthropy.” Her last day will be June 7.

French Gates will get $12.5 billion in resources to direct toward her philanthropic work. In a statement, she said she would use the money she was leaving with to “commit to my work on behalf of women and families.”

Already one of the world’s most influential female philanthropists, French Gates has long argued that the uplift of women benefits all of society. Her pivot to women’s rights and gender equality is likely to have a meaningful impact on the world of giving.

“It’s a milestone in the evolution of arguably the most important foundation of our time,” said Amir Pasic, the dean of Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Pasic noted that French Gates’ potential contributions to women’s issues, from the $12.5 billion she is taking with her, could be influential. According to the school’s index, contributions to women’s and girls’ organizations in 2020 represented just 1.8% of all giving in the country.

So far, the main vehicle for French Gates’ work has been Pivotal Ventures, a firm she founded in 2015. Pivotal is not a foundation; rather, it is a limited liability company, a type of entity that can make grants to nonprofits as well as for-profit investments and engage in advocacy work. With dozens of employees, the firm, in Kirkland, Washington, targets issues such as paid family and medical leave and increasing female representation in politics, and invests in funds led by women.

In 2021, Pivotal was among the firms that called on the Biden administration to appoint a “caregiving czar.” French Gates has also worked with former first lady Michelle Obama and Mackenzie Scott, who is the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and is also a philanthropist.

So far, Pivotal has made a commitment of $1 billion toward its causes; the new funds are likely to give it far more heft.

On X, Gates said he was “sorry to see Melinda leave,” but that she would “have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.” He said French Gates was “instrumental” in helping shape the foundation’s vision, and that he remained “fully committed” to its work.

Gates, who is the world’s seventh-richest man and has an estimated net worth of $130 billion, according to Forbes, will become the sole chair of the Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, the foundation’s CEO, said in a statement released Monday.

French Gates has “new ideas about the role she wants to play in improving the lives of women and families in the U.S. and around the world.” Suzman said. He added that she would be dedicating her time to altering the trajectory of “women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. and around the world” over the past few years.

When the foundation got its start, French Gates played more of a behind-the-scenes role, although she was engaged from the beginning.

As her children grew older, she started spending more time at the foundation’s offices, staking a claim for herself. She became its voice on family planning, maternal care and other development-related issues that specifically affected women.

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