Melinda French Gates has recently shared her view on wealth and accountability with Vanity Fair. She says her net worth is USD 11 billion but according to reports it is USD 13.5 billion, and she never saw it as a burden but as a surreal reality where there is a great responsibility. “The weighty part is to watch struggling mothers provide for their children,” she said, stressing on her desire to help the needy with the resources she has.
Melinda and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded that Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, French Gates has devoted more than twenty years to philanthropy. It is involved in global health and education and has claimed an endowment of USD 75.2 billion as on December 2023. In June 2024, she resigned from the co-chair of the foundation, three years after her divorce, and the second round of distributing USD 12.5 billion for her charitable activities.
Besides the philanthropic activities, French Gates made political contributions and said that she donated a “significant amount” to Kamala Harris’s campaign. She states that billionaires should be charitable and declared that “If you are lucky enough to be a billionaire, believe me, you can give away half of it and not change your life.”
French Gates established Pivotal Ventures in 2015 as a separate organization that seeks to address issues concerning women and families. She expressed the importance of flexibility in her approach to philanthropy: “I wanted to be able to use every tool in my toolbox,” including giving and investment approaches.
