Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Overview: In recent years, the Gates Foundation has stepped up their giving to women and girls substantially. The foundation tends to give very large grants to well-established organizations but does do some smaller grantmaking, such as a 2018 grant for $25,000 to the National Council of Negro Women in support of their 58th Annual Convention. Most grants are made by the foundation directly contacting organizations and inviting them to apply. The foundation lists RFP grant opportunities here. From scanning the grants database, it appears that proportionally, a large share of the Gates Foundation's project funding for women and girls goes to global initiatives. However, they are also major funders of the Women's Philanthropy Institute in the U.S. In addition, on October 2, 2019, Melinda Gates announced a new plan to fund $1 billion dollars for U.S. gender equality efforts over ten years, the largest single donation pledge for gender equality in U.S. history. Funding Area: Women and