Melinda French Gates plans to match $1M in GivingTuesday gifts to groups that back women

recent YORK — Melinda French Gates is offering to match up to $1 million in gifts to two nonprofit organizations to assist spur donations on GivingTuesday, which has become a major annual donation collection day for nonprofits.

For more than a decade, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, charitable organizations have asked for donations or other back from their networks.

“It’s a great period to prompt people that we’re better off when we provide something back and we all have something to provide back,” said French Gates in an interview, speaking about her thrill for GivingTuesday. The statement & Melinda Gates Foundation was an early supporter of GivingTuesday, which started as a hashtag and a assignment at the 92nd Street Y in recent York and has since become its own organization.

Last year, donors gave an estimated $3.1 billion on GivingTuesday, but the overall number of people who participated declined. Asha Curran, CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday, who calculated that approximate, said matches like French Gates’ assist catalyze people to provide.

“We really distribute a commitment to the concept also that philanthropy is not just in the hands of the ultra wealthy,” she said. “That it really takes everyone to contribute to a well population through generosity.”

Una Osili, associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly household School of Philanthropy, says that even if fewer households are giving, donations may be holding steady because those who donate are giving more.

“The optimist in me would certainly declare there are lots of reasons to ponder that giving will at least hold steady,” Osili said. “But what we’ve seen in the history few years is that worth rise especially, even though it’s moderated, is a concern for many everyday households.”

French Gates, through her organization Pivotal, plans to match up to $500,000 in donations to two organizations — Vote Mama Foundation, which supports mothers running for political office, and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, which advocates for people caring for others. The organizations have 10 days to raise the funds and will direct donors to provide through the nonprofit crowdfunding platform Every.org, which will track the donations that will be matched.

“This was Melinda. This was a complete shock to us,” said Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder and CEO of Vote Mama Foundation.

Her organization wants to make it easier for mothers to hold political office, from local school boards to the Senate. She founded the organization after running for Congress in 2018 when she successfully petitioned the Federal Election fee to use campaign funds to pay for childcare. Now, all federal candidates can pay for childcare with campaign funds and many states have passed similar laws.

“It’s used by men. It’s used by women. It’s used by moms and dads and Democrats and Republicans,” Grechen Shirley said. “But the majority of funds are used by women, and a majority of those funds are used by women of color. So it really does have the ability to transform the political landscape.”

Through her giving and advocacy, French Gates has championed paid household leave, back for caregivers and making kid worry less expensive. She endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race but said that Harris’ loss won’t stop her from continuing her work.

The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers is one of the first organizations to talk out about the work of caregiving, French Gates said. Paurvi Bhatt, who leads the institute, said French Gates had a long and cherished connection with former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who passed away last year.

“It is based on a hand-in-glove connection we’ve had for a number of years,” Bhatt said of the matching gift.

This community match on GivingTuesday is the latest commitment French Gates has made since stepping down from the Gates Foundation in May. (French Gates and statement Gates, her ex-husband and the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, announced their divorce in 2021.) She pledged $1 billion to back women and families over two years. That included $250 million to back improving women’s health globally and she gave 12 leaders each $20 million to distribute to nonprofit organizations of their selection before the complete of 2026.

“The rationale I’ve arrive out so strongly saying, ‘This is what I am doing next,’ is because I wanted people to recognize I’m not going away,” said French Gates. “My values are still here. And this work around ‘How do we make a more equitable population?’ There is so much work to be done in the United States.”

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The Associated Press receives monetary back for information coverage in Africa from the statement & Melinda Gates Foundation and for information coverage of women in the workforce and in statehouses from Pivotal Ventures.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives back through the AP’s collaboration with The exchange US, with capital from Lilly donation Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.