MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, made headlines in 2022 for giving away $14 billion—nearly half of her fortune—over the course of just three years; earlier this year she gave away another $640 million to small nonprofits. Now an esteemed peer is following her lead: Melinda French Gates, ex-wife of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, announced in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday that she would leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation she cofounded nearly 25 years ago and donate $1 billion to various women’s-rights causes, including reproductive rights.
“Despite the pressing need, only about 2% of charitable giving in the United States goes to organizations focused on women and girls, and only about half a percentage point goes to organizations focused on women of color specifically,” Gates wrote. “When we allow this cause to go so chronically underfunded, we all pay the cost. As shocking as it is to contemplate, my 1-year-old granddaughter may grow up with fewer rights than I had.”
The groups that French Gates is funding with her donation include the National Women’s Law Center, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, and part of her op-ed focused specifically on the challenges faced by organizations working to secure women’s rights in a political climate that has grown increasingly hostile to feminist sentiment: “For too long, a lack of money has forced organizations fighting for women’s rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offense,” she noted. “I want to help even the match.”
Far be it from me to find fault with a mitzvah on the level of French Gates’s donation, but the money that she’s pledged likely won’t reach local abortion funds, the resources that could arguably use it most. Those funds have been providing direct, often lifesaving care in the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned and are facing a steep drop-off in donations even as they face more financial difficulty than ever in assisting pregnant people seeking abortions. French Gates and Scott’s actions on behalf of women’s rights are certainly commendable, but hopefully their next wave of charitable giving will include local organizations like the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama, Buckle Bunnies in Texas, or the Roe Fund in Oklahoma. (Or maybe we just need another billionaire’s ex to step up and get a little more targeted with her donations: Your move, Grimes.)
