In 2024, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates made a $7.88 billion contribution to a charitable foundation established by his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. Media outlets have reported that that the gift was part of a $12.5 billion philanthropic separation agreement between the two.
On top of that, Gates made additional contributions worth at least $2.94 billion that same year to several other recently formed foundations associated with French Gates, whose heft as an independent philanthropist continues to grow. In light of this $10.8 billion inflow, it is worth taking a closer look at French Gates’ network of 501(c)(3) charitable philanthropies and what they have thus far been funding.
The Pivotal network
This means that in just its third year of existence, the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation suddenly became one of the larger private foundations in the United States.
Melinda French Gates conducts her philanthropic, advocacy, and investment activities through an umbrella organization called Pivotal, which she founded in 2015. Until 2024 she also co-chaired the Gates Foundation (formerly the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), which she had co-founded with Gates in 2000. The two were divorced in 2021.
French Gates initially formed Pivotal Ventures LLC, explaining to The Chronicle of Philanthropy that a limited liability company offered her maximum operational flexibility in the early years. Nonprofits have since been added to the Pivotal network, so that today it consists of Pivotal Ventures, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit called the Pivotal Initiatives Fund (which reported no revenue or assets in 2024), and at least five 501(c)(3) private foundations.
Bill Gates’ $7.88 billion donation was made to a 501(c)(3) private foundation called the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, which received its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 2022. French Gates gave $675 million to the foundation that year, and after two years of grantmaking it ended 2023 with net assets of $532 million—modest by Big Philanthropy standards. That all changed in 2024. The same tax filings which disclosed Bill Gates’ contribution revealed that the foundation ended the year with nearly $6.9 billion in net assets.
This means that in just its third year of existence, the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation suddenly became one of the larger private foundations in the United States. For context, its 2024 net assets were greater than those of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Walton Family Foundation.
On top of this, French Gates is associated with at least four additional 501(c)(3) private foundations within the Pivotal network, all of which received their tax-exempt status from the IRS in 2023. These include:
All five foundations share the same street address and list Melinda French Gates as director, John Sage as president/treasurer and Brooke Anderson as vice president/secretary. Anderson serves as Pivotal’s president, while Sage is a longtime advisor to French Gates. These three are also listed among the five officers/directors of the 501(c)(4) Pivotal Initiatives Fund.
The Firefinch Foundation reported no revenues or assets in 2024. However, the Opportunity, Pathways, and Momentum foundations each reported receiving exactly $982,228,982 in contributions from Bill Gates, and each held net assets of approximately $962.6 million at the end of the year. This means that in 2024, Gates contributed over $10.8 billion to four different 501(c)(3) private foundations associated with Pivotal and French Gates. At the end of the year, their combined net assets stood at $9.78 billion.
2024 grantmaking
…the National Women’s Law Center believes (among many other things) that “abortion is love, community, and justice personified,” and that federal public policy should be to “tax the patriarchy.”
The Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation is the only one of the five Pivotal private foundations which made grants in 2024, and it paid out more than $484.6 million that year according to its tax filings. Again for context, this is more than either the Packard Foundation or the MacArthur Foundation.
Pivotal’s central purpose is to “accelerate the pace of social progress for women and young people in the U.S. and around the world.” This is an issue of great personal importance to Melinda French Gates, and she has publicly committed a total of $2 billion to that cause so far, according to Pivotal’s website. The announcement of the second $1 billion in 2024 (to be paid out through 2026) explained that the money would be used “to advance women’s power and influence globally,” and provided an outline of the associated grantmaking programs and recipients.
The specific amounts given to grantees by the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation in 2024 were disclosed in its tax filings for that year. More than half of the total—a full $257.5 million—went to the National Philanthropic Trust, which is one of the largest donor-advised fund providers in the country. The vast majority of this money ($242.5 million) was in turn earmarked for the Global Leaders Fund, which is an international grantmaking initiative through which twelve individuals were selected to disburse $20 million each to groups which they personally believe are “doing urgent, impactful, and innovative work to improve women’s health and wellbeing globally.” Among those chosen to distribute the money were former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, and Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix.
The foundation also gave $17 million to the giant philanthropic collaborative Blue Meridian Partners, designated “to raise public awareness of the benefits of full access to economic opportunities.” Pivotal joined Blue Meridian as a general partner, pledging to contribute at least $50 million. Of the $13 million Pivotal gave to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in 2024, $10 million was earmarked “to reduce violence against women,” with the balance going to economic opportunities awareness. Though not specified, some of this money could have supported the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity or the Collective Future Fund—two fiscally-sponsored projects of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors that Pivotal Philanthropies has confirmed it would be funding.
More than $26.5 million was granted by Pivotal Philanthropies “to increase access to mental health support for young people.” This money went to a range of organizations, with the largest share being given to the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation and the New Venture Fund. These groups received a total of $8.425 million and $10.55 million, respectively, from Pivotal in 2024.
Another $24.2 million was given to support “civic engagement,” which is notable given that 2024 was a presidential election year. Most of this civic engagement funding ($16.8 million) went to the Hopewell Fund, which separately also received a rather intriguing grant of $750,000 “to reduce political violence.” Seven-figure civic engagement grants were also made to the New Venture Fund, Panorama Global, and the Rutgers University Foundation.
In a 2024 press release, Pivotal announced that $235 million of the second $1 billion it was committing through 2026 would be in the form of general support grants made to “organizations fighting to advance women’s power and protect their rights in the United States.” It listed nearly two dozen specific grantees that would receive funding through this initiative, many of which are prominent national left-of-center activist groups.
One notable such activist grantee was the National Women’s Law Center, which (alongside its directly-controlled legal defense fund called the National Women’s Law Center Fund LLC) received a combined total of $12 million from Pivotal in 2024. A heavily politicized 501(c)(3) nonprofit involved in a host of controversial issues, the National Women’s Law Center believes (among many other things) that “abortion is love, community, and justice personified,” and that federal public policy should be to “tax the patriarchy.” A January 2026 search for the word “Trump” on the group’s website returned 59 pages of results.
Another left-leaning public policy advocacy group, the National Partnership for Women and Families, received $14 million. The major pro-abortion activist groups Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly known as NARAL Pro-Choice America) and Center for Reproductive Rights received $5 million and $4 million, respectively, from Pivotal in 2024. The left-of-center nonprofit news outlet The 19th received more than $4.2 million.
The States United Democracy Center received $7 million from Pivotal—part of a large influx of funding which saw the center’s revenues jump from $17.5 million in 2023 to $33.3 million in 2024. Pivotal also gave $5.5 million to Community Change, which works to “bridge the worlds of grassroots organizing and progressive politics to change the systems that impact our communities,” and believes that “poverty abolition is essential to undoing the violence of systemic racism, misogyny, and white supremacy in our country.”
$2.5 million went to a group called Girls for Gender Equity, which applies a “Black feminist lens” to its efforts to reshape “culture and policy through advocacy, youth-centered programming, and narrative shift to achieve gender and racial justice.” Another $2.5 million went to the Justice and Joy National Collaborative, whose mission is to “advance social, economic, and political justice with and for girls, young women, and gender-expansive young people of color.”
Groups that received $4 million include the Ms. Foundation for Women, the MomsRising Education Fund, the Roosevelt Institute, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the New America Foundation. Pivotal Philanthropies’ $2 million recipients included the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. RepresentWomen, a group that works to “break down structural barriers to women’s political leadership” in order to achieve “gender-balanced representation in elected and appointed positions, at every level of government,” received $1.5 million.
Final thoughts
The billions of charitable dollars now at Melinda French Gates’ disposal further cement her place as among the most influential individual philanthropists in the United States. Though her efforts to help women and youth globally could certainly produce much good, those concerned about the politicization of American philanthropy will be disappointed in the activist-heavy nature of her 501(c)(3) grantmaking. Perhaps it should not be surprising. French Gates has become a major Democratic Party donor, and Pivotal Ventures operates explicitly political advocacy programs.
Along those same lines, it is worth remarking on the combined $28.1 million that the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation reported giving to the New Venture Fund and the Hopewell Fund in 2024. These are two of the gigantic 501(c)(3) nonprofits formerly managed by the recently-defunct Arabella Advisors, and which are now among the owner-clients of its successor company (at least with respect to fiscal sponsorship activities) Sunflower Services.
This is notable, because in 2025 the Gates Foundation terminated its very substantial grantmaking to nonprofits that were then being managed by Arabella Advisors. It remains to be seen if Pivotal follows suit, although its demonstrated willingness to fund the openly left-of-center public policy activist groups with which the New Venture Fund and Hopewell Fund are closely identified would seem to suggest that this is unlikely
Finally, it will be very interesting to learn more about French Gates’ purpose in setting up at least five different private foundations to conduct her 501(c)(3) grantmaking. Assuming the three new foundations which were capitalized by Bill Gates in 2024 began making grants in 2025, their next public tax filings will presumably go a long way towards answering this question.
