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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Associated Press

Who is getting part of Melinda French Gates' $1 billion initiative to support women and girls

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Melinda French Gates announced Tuesday that she plans to donate $1 billion over the next two years to organizations supporting women and girls around the world. French Gates will leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her ex-husband Bill Gates, next week and receive $12.5 billion from Gates as part of their divorce agreement.

The donations will be made through her Pivotal Ventures group. Here is how Pivotal says it will be divided:

— $200 million to existing U.S. nonprofits supporting women and girls: Center for Reproductive Rights, Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity, Collective Future Fund, Community Change, Institute for Women's Policy Research, MomsRising Education Fund, Ms. Foundation for Women, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Partnership for Women & Families, National Women's Law Center, New America, The 19th, Roosevelt Institute, States United Democracy Center, Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, and Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

— $240 million, in $20 million grants to each of these global leaders: Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble, founder of The AAKOMA Project; Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix; filmmaker Ava DuVernay; Crystal Echo Hawk, founder of IllumiNative; Gary Barker, founder of Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice; Hauwa Ojeifo, founder of She Writes Woman; former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Roberta Gbowee; M. V. Lee Badgett, founding partner of Koppa: The LGBTI+ Economic Power Lab; Richard V. Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men; Sabrina Habib, co-founder and CEO of Kidogo; and Shabana Basij-Rasikh, co-founder of the School of Leadership Afghanistan.

— $250 million to be awarded to organizations working to improve women’s mental and physical health worldwide, selected through an open call with Lever for Change this fall.

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The Associated Press receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures for news coverage of women in the workforce and state governments.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration 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.

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