Melinda French Gates today announced the funding recipients of her $250 million open call supporting organizations worldwide that are working to address women’s physical and mental health.
The Action for Women’s Health grantees include 83 organizations based in 22 countries. Recipients will receive between $1 million and $5 million, and many have previously been excluded from major funding opportunities.
“In the 25 years I’ve worked on women’s health, I’ve been struck by a grim reality that connects women across contexts and continents: No matter where you are in the world, if you live in a woman’s body, you are likely to face a unique set of barriers to receiving the care you need to live a full and healthy life,” French Gates wrote in a blog post.
Those barriers, she continued, include policies such as restrictive abortion laws that caused a woman in Louisiana to twice get turned away from emergency rooms when struggling through a miscarriage, and a lack of proximity to care for a pregnant woman in Malawi who lived hours from delivery services.
The key focus areas for the Action for Women’s Health grantees are: care for pregnant women and mothers and babies; community health and healthcare access; reproductive health and rights; public health; and mental health. Roughly one-third of the organizations receiving funding are focused on maternal and perinatal health, while one-quarter address community health.
Pacific Northwest-based recipients include Open Arms Perinatal Services, an organization helping mothers with doula services, lactation assistance and other support for families, and Seattle Indian Health Board, a community health center serving Native people.
Action for Women’s Health is part of a $1 billion initiative centered on women’s and family issues that French Gates announced in May 2024, shortly after her resignation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She left the Seattle-based philanthropy, now called the Gates Foundation, with $12.5 billion for her own initiatives as part of her divorce agreement with Bill Gates.
Pivotal Ventures, French Gates’ independent company, is overseeing her billion-dollar effort and Lever for Change managed the open call.
Pivotal previously shared more details on two of its other components: the awarding of $200 million to U.S. groups focused on women’s rights, and $20 million grants issued to 12 individuals globally whose work French Gates admires.
