TUSCALOOSA — Melinda French Gates pledged $215 million on June 4, 2026, to support contraceptive access, maternal care, and initiatives for middle-aged women. This funding commitment was made through Pivotal, a group of organizations French Gates founded in 2015 to manage her philanthropy and investments.
The new pledge increases her total women's health donations to over $600 million within a two-year period. "I want women’s health issues to not be invisible. I don’t want the default to be that women are expected to deal with pain and suffering." French Gates said.
Pivotal will allocate $40 million to Co-Impact for an initiative integrating mental health support into maternal and primary care in Africa. Additionally, $10 million will go to the Menopause Society to educate healthcare practitioners and expand menopause care outreach across the U.S. Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society, noted that menopause remains an overlooked area in medicine. "Menopause remains one of the most overlooked and underserved areas in medicine, and The Menopause Society believes women deserve better." Faubion said.
She also increased funding allocations to the National Women's Law Center and the Center for Reproductive Rights. WAWC, a former abortion clinic in Tuscaloosa, received a $5 million grant from her to reopen and incorporate mental health services after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. She stepped away from the Gates Foundation in 2024. Bill Gates co-founded the Gates Foundation with Melinda French Gates. She has an estimated net worth of $19.2 billion.
"The role of philanthropy, in my opinion, is to look at some of these societal problems that have been left behind, and shine light on them, show ways of making progress so you can then crowd in other donors and ultimately crowd in government funding." French Gates stated. "I think philanthropy is going to fill a greater role than it ever has in the past because we are just not going to have the same type of government funding that we’ve had before." Faubion said. Pivotal's funding strategy involves philanthropy, investing, and policy advocacy over a two-to-three-year testing phase. The World Economic Forum reports that health issues specifically affecting women receive 2% of private healthcare funding, despite women constituting half of the global population.