Melinda French Gates Pledges Another $215 Million for Women’s Health, Totaling $600 Million Through Pivotal Ventures

Melinda French Gates announced a new $215 million commitment to women’s health programs in the United States and globally, bringing her total pledges in the area to $600 million. The funds will support access to care during reproductive years, health services during midlife and menopause, and mental health initiatives.

The commitments are in a two-to-three-year testing phase conducted through Pivotal Ventures, her firm that uses philanthropy, investing, and policy advocacy.

In mid-May she visited the WAWC clinic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she sat on a couch holding an eight-month-old while listening to Asia Brooks describe her improved birth experience after postpartum depression. The clinic had closed after the overturn of Roe v. Wade and reopened in a former software-company building with a $5 million grant from French Gates.

Pivotal Ventures has invested in 13 early-stage companies and 27 funds. Partners include Wellcome Leap and the Menopause Society. “It’s very freeing,” French Gates said of having sole control over her philanthropic decisions after leaving the Gates Foundation two years earlier.

She added that she is trying to send a signal that women’s health is a viable category for other donors. She said other philanthropists have grown cautious because of the Trump administration. “They’re causing chaos and fear,” she said.

French Gates, who is 60, said she realized roughly ten years ago while traveling in Africa that women’s health was the most important factor limiting women’s access to power. She has increased support for the National Women’s Law Center and the Center for Reproductive Rights beyond previous levels.