Melinda French Gates is a force of philanthropic action and an inspiration for women all over the world. Beyond her own monumental efforts, she has inspired her daughters to back her charitable causes. The trio has become a founding supporter of the Women’s Health Co-Lab, which launched with more than $10 million in collective commitments from the Gates women and 14 other donors. The American billionaire, worth $34 billion, has long been a champion of women’s health. Over the last two years through her firm Pivotal Ventures, French Gates has supercharged her direct philanthropic focus into women’s health.
The Women’s Health Co-Lab, announced on September 29, 2025, at the Forbes Impact Summit, was created by ICONIQ Impact, the philanthropy platform of the investment and wealth-management firm ICONIQ, in partnership with Co-Impact. The collaboration supports 22 organizations addressing core drivers of health inequity for women and girls. These organizations were selected from a vast pool of more than 400.
The 22 grantees will receive unrestricted, multiyear funding over three years, allowing them to strengthen the underlying systems that determine whether women receive care, information, legal protection, or personal autonomy. The Gates women, who have been enthusiastic advocates and outspoken supporters of women’s health, are pitching in to tackle critical issues like preventable deaths during pregnancy, gender-based violence, and barriers to family planning services, some of the ordeals women around the world face in their health and well-being.
“It is unacceptable that in 2025, women are still fighting the same battles for health and safety,” said Phoebe Gates. “Yet these 22 organizations give us reason to believe change is possible. They are pushing forward, protecting reproductive freedom, confronting violence, and demanding better care for mothers. Their work is a powerful reminder of the world we have the power to create.” In addition to being part of the founding donor group that has mobilized $70 million toward the $100 million goal, in June 2026, Melinda French Gates announced a separate $215 million women’s health commitment through Pivotal, bringing her total of women’s health funding over two years to more than $600 million.
While Melinda’s dedication to women’s health is not only well known but also well publicized, it is worth noting that the other two Gates women are following in their mother’s footsteps. Jennifer Gates Nassar, a pediatric resident at Mount Sinai, used the final days of her maternity leave to travel through Louisiana with her mother, speaking with patients, healthcare providers, legislators, and mothers who had lost babies.
Fashion platform Phia co-founder Phoebe Gates has spoken openly and vehemently on reproductive rights, technology, and popular culture. Not just talking the talk, the 24-year-old, following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, visited Louisiana and Mississippi to see the consequences of abortion restrictions firsthand. In fact, she is not simply signing checks, but also co-produced a documentary series about reproductive freedom to spread the word more impactfully.
As for the Women’s Health Co-Lab program, reaching its $100 million goal could do a tremendous amount of good. The funding will support initiatives ranging from providing cervical screenings for 10 million women in Brazil, to developing birth centers serving women of color in the United States, to expanding abortion-access work that could benefit nearly 33 million women in Mexico. Among the grantees that will help those in need are Every Mother Counts, the Maternal and Reproductive Health Research Collective, Americans for Contraception, Girl Effect, Serenas, and Ujamaa Africa, among others. A full list and details about the work of the 22 grantees selected for the Co-Lab can be found online. To date, ICONIQ Impact has mobilized over $70 million for this effort with another $30 million needed to reach its goal.
Note: According to Forbes, Melinda French Gates is worth $34 billion at the time of writing.
