'Evening the match': Melinda French Gates to give $1 billion to women's rights groups

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates has announced that she's investing $1 billion over the next two years to causes that pursue women's rights and gender equity on a global scale.

The ex-wife of billionaire Bill Gates and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation said Tuesday that $200 million of the investment will go toward organizations fighting for reproductive and gender rights in the U.S.

In a New York Times guest essay, French Gates said that she's compelled to support reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

"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 said. "I want to help even the match."

The new grants will be distributed through her organization, Pivotal Ventures, to groups such as the National Women’s Law Center, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

What organizations is Gates' funding?

According to her guest essay, French Gates is giving $20 million of her $1 billion investment to a “diverse group of 12 global leaders” who will distribute the funds to organizations of their choosing. Another $250 million of investments will be announced in the fall for organizations that promote women's mental and physical health.

The 19th, a nonprofit news organization reporting on women and the LGBTQ+ community, is receiving a three-year multimillion dollar grant from French Gates.

In response to the grant, the group wrote that the grant "will bolster our critical politics and policy coverage in a seismic election year, allow us to make strategic investments in our audiences and our future, and lay the foundation for our long-term sustainability in a turbulent time for our industry."

MomsRising, a grassroots organization that supports the economic security of women and families in the U.S., received a multimillion dollar grant from French Gates, along with the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing 50 women in lawsuits challenging abortion restrictions in multiple states.

“Because I have been given this extraordinary opportunity, I am determined to do everything I can to seize it and to set an agenda that helps other women and girls set theirs, too." French Gates wrote in the New York Times.

Last month, she announced that she was stepping down from the famous Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable institutions in the world. June 7 is her last day of work with the global health and development charity.

Contributing: Natalie Neysa Alund