The Gates Foundation, previously known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was formed in 2000 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates. Its total assets of nearly$55 billion (as of year-end 2021) make the Gates Foundation the largest private philanthropic foundation in the world. 1
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The Gates Foundation spends five percent of its endowment on programs and advocacy concerning education, health, poverty, climate change, and “clean energy.” The other 95 percent is invested through The Gates Foundation Trust, the foundation’s “sister” nonprofit that was established in 2006 to manage the group’s endowment and investment portfolio. 2 At the time of its creation, the Trust was controlled by three people: Bill Gates, Melinda, and billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett, who pledged $31 billion to the Foundation in 2006. They were signers of The Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Gates to invite billionaires in committing “to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetimes or in their wills.” 3 4
The Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars to promote and implement the highly controversial national Common Core education standards. The funding for the standards stretched from teachers’ unions and business groups to political advocacy groups, and was embraced by the Obama administration, which eventually hired a number of former Gates Foundation staffers. 5
Gates and the Foundation have also come under scrutiny for purportedly cornering the market on global health initiatives, and encroaching on the territory of public organizations with parallel vision such as the World Health Organization. 6 The Foundation has given more than $82 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network, International Planned Parenthood Worldwide, and Planned Parenthood in both central and western Washington state. 7
As of 2024, following Bill and Melinda divorce in 2021, Melinda stepped down in May 2024 as co-chair of the Foundation. As of January 2025, Bill Gates is listed as the sole chair and trustee, and the name was changed to the Gates Foundation following Melinda’s departure. 8
The Gates Foundation was founded in 1994 as the William H. Gates Foundation. It was created by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his then-wife Melinda French Gates, and was run by Gates’ father, William H. Gates, Sr., ostensibly to focus on global health. 9
Bill and Melinda founded the Gates Library Foundation in 1997 with the stated goal of bringing internet access and computers to U.S. public libraries. It became the Gates Learning Foundation in 1999 when it broadened its focus to include college readiness. 10
In 2000, the William H. Gates Foundation merged with the Gates Learning Foundation and became known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 10
Following an infusion of money from billionaire investor Warren Buffet in 2006, the foundation set up a separate organization called the Gates Foundation Trust, then titled the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, to handle foundation assets. 10 The Gates Foundation also reorganized to include global development, global health, and United States divisions. A global policy and development division was added in 2012. 9
As of 2024, following Bill and Melinda divorce in 2021, Melinda stepped down in May 2024 as co-chair of the Foundation. As of January 2025, Bill Gates is listed as the sole chair and trustee, and the name was changed to the Gates Foundation following Melinda’s departure. 8
In May 2025, Bill Gates announced he would be giving away roughly $200 billion through the Gates Foundation by 2045, where he would divest and close the Foundation by the end of that year. In addition, during an interview with Reuters, Gates criticized tech entrepreneur and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk over the cuts DOGE had made to the Federal Government so far, claiming “[t]he picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one…[t]he number of deaths will start going up for the first time … it’s going to be millions more deaths because of the resources.” 11 In January 2026, the Foundation announced that its board had approved a $9 billion annual payout as part of it’s commitment to expedite it’s mission before 2045. 12
In advance of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, Bill Gates published an essay on his personal website outlining what he described as “three tough truths about climate.” In the piece, Gates argued that while climate change remains a serious global challenge, it should not be viewed as an existential crisis or “the end of civilization.” He emphasized that the “doomsday view” of climate change diverts resources from more effective efforts to improve life in a warming world. Gates urged a strategic focus on innovation and adaptation, highlighting that poverty and disease continue to pose greater threats to human welfare than climate impacts for most people, particularly in low-income regions. He noted that excessive cold causes significantly more deaths annually than extreme heat and criticized efforts to restrict energy development in poorer countries, stating that “using more energy is a good thing” when it supports economic growth and public health. 13
When it was initially founded, the Gates Foundation was controlled by three trustees: Bill Gates, his then-wife Melinda, and Warren Buffett. William H. Gates, Sr. was the foundation’s previous co-chair. 14 As of 2020, the foundation listed 1,489 employees and had given to grantees in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as more than 100 countries. 15 By January 2025, Bill is listed as the sole chair of the Foundation’s board following Melinda stepping down as co-chair following their divorce proceedings being finalized. 8
The foundation issues grants from an endowment that is handled by the Gates Foundation Trust which had previously listed Bill and Melinda as the sole trustees. 16 The foundation has funded $50.1 billion in grants since its inception. 15
Grantmaking areas include: 17
The foundation’s locations include: 17
Most of the money for the Gates Foundation has come from the Gates’ personal wealth, starting with $94 million in Microsoft stock in 1994 to establish the William H. Gates Foundation. 18 On his 43rd birthday in 1998, Gates gave the foundation $1 billion. 19 In 1999, Gates and his then-wife Melinda contributed $16 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 19
Contributions are held in an endowment, which must give away at least five percent of its worth each year. The other 95 percent is invested. 20 From 2000 to 2007, the endowment was managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates’ personal fortune.
In 2006, investor Warren Buffett made a lifetime pledge to the foundation of Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at $31 billion. 9 The gift is paid in yearly installments with most recent contribution of $3.6 billion on July 1, 2019. 21 To date, Buffett has contributed $24.5 billion to the BMGF. 22
In 2006, the foundation trustees restructured and created the Gates Foundation Trust to hold donated investment assets from Bill Gates, and his then-wife Melinda, and annual contributions from Warren Buffett. 23 In turn, the trust funds foundation programs and grants. 18 Tax documents from 2015 listed Bill Gates and Melinda as the sole trustees of the Trust at the time. 16
In 2020, the Gates Foundation received nearly $12.7 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock from Warren Buffett. 24
As of 2024, Bill Gates is listed as the sole chair and trustee for the Gates Foundation. Following his divorce from his former wife Melinda in 2021, in May 2024 it was announced she would be stepping down as co-chair of the Foundation. This led to the organization rebranding itself as the Gates Foundation (previously titled the Bill and Melida Gates Foundation). 8 Gates’ former wife Melinda and billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett were previous trustees of the Foundation. 25
In addition, William “Bill” H. Gates, Sr., a retired business executive and father of Bill Gates, was a previous Gates Foundation co-chair, an attorney, and had formerly served as head of Planned Parenthood. 26
Mark Suzman is the chief executive officer of the Gates Foundation, a position he’s held since February 2020. Prior to that, the South Africa-born Suzman was director of Global Development Policy and Advocacy for the Gates Foundation from 2007 to 2020. 27 In 2018, Suzman reported $995,462 in total compensation in his role as director of Global Development Policy and Advocacy. 28
Susan “Sue” Desmond-Hellmann was the Gates Foundation’s chief executive officer from 2014 to January 2020, when she retired from the organization. Desmond-Hellmann is an oncologist, career healthcare nonprofit officer, and a former Facebook board member. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation in 2014, she was chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco and president of product development for Genentech, a biotech firm. 29 In 2018, Desmond-Hellman reported total compensation of $1,489,778 as CEO of the foundation. 28
Also see Gates Foundation Trust (Nonprofit)
The Gates Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation required to report its donors. Much of the foundation’s donations come from the Gates Foundation Trust, a separate but related foundation created in 2006 to manage its “sister” group’s endowment assets and investment portfolio. 30
In 2018, the Gates Foundation’s largest donors were the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, which gave the foundation nearly $5.6 billion, and Bill Gates, who gave it nearly $2.5 million. 31
In June 2018, Business Insider cited a RAND Corporation report to note that a $1 billion education initiative that the Gates Foundation backed had “largely failed to help students.” 32 The Gates Foundation had chosen RAND Corporation, a nonprofit think tank, to evaluate the education initiative. The RAND report stated that, “[o]verall. . . the initiative did not achieve its goals for student achievement or graduation, particularly for LIM [low-income minority] students.” 32
In May 2018, the Gates Foundation announced its plans to give $158 million to the Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, which is connected to the left-of-center Urban Institute. 33
Bill Gates believes that divesting in fossil fuel has little to no impact on tackling climate change. Gates told the Financial Times, “Divestment, to date, probably has reduced about zero tones of emissions. It’s not like you’ve capital-starved [the] people making steel and gasoline.” 34 Gates believes that a more effective method is to invest in businesses and technologies that increase innovations towards reducing carbon emissions. He commented, “When I’m taking billions of dollars and creating breakthrough energy ventures and funding only companies who, if they’re successful, reduce greenhouse gases by 0.5 per cent, then I actually do see a cause and effect type thing.” 34
Foundations are not permitted by tax law to contribute to candidates for election. However, the Center For Responsive Politics lists contributions from individuals who list the Gates Foundation as their employer: Those contributions total $1,006,305 to political candidates and political action committees (PACs) since 2000. Of those contributions, 88 percent, or $106,212, were made to Democratic candidates and committees. 35 The Gates Foundation is also a donor to the political nonprofit Demos, a progressive policy research group. Since 2009, the Gates foundation has contributed at least $850,000 to the nonprofit. 36
In 2020, the Gates Foundation contributed $126,754,593 to the New Venture Fund, part of a multi-billion-dollar “dark money” nonprofit network created and run by Arabella Advisors, a consulting in Washington, D.C. 37 The New Venture Fund specializes in passing grants from its donors to left-of-center political causes and activist groups as well as sponsoring new “pop-up” groups, or websites dedicated to pushing left-of-center policy while disguised as independent activist nonprofits. 38
In 2014, the Washington Post characterized the involvement of the then-Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in establishing national Common Core education standards as a “swift revolution,” with the Foundation not only bankrolling the development but also building “political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes.” 39
Starting in 2008, hundreds of millions of dollars in Gates Foundation money went to a broad range of organizations including the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, policy groups including liberals (most notably the Center for American Progress) and conservatives (such as the Thomas B. Fordham Institute) and state and local groups. The “revolution” received further support from the Obama administration, which was populated with former Gates Foundation staffers and associates. 39
The Gates Foundation provided seed money the non-profit Teaching Channel website and Teaching Channel television program to promote Common Core teaching instructions. 40 The effort was launched in September 2011 with programs airing on public television stations. 41
By 2010, 45 states and the District of Columbia had fully adopted the Gates-backed Common Core State Standards. By 2014 Common Core came under increasing criticism even among former supporters on the left. 42 A 2016 report found that Common Core was not preparing students very well for college or a career. 43
In May, 2016, then-CEO Sue Desmond-Hellman admitted in an annual letter that the foundation had made mistakes with Common Core. 44 The letter prompted a Los Angeles Times editorial titled, “Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldn’t be setting America’s public school agenda.” The editorial criticized the Gates Foundation of taking on an “unhealthy amount of power in the setting of education policy,” landing former foundation staff members high positions in the U.S. Department of Education and head of the Los Angeles Unified School District. 45
According to a May 2025 Wall Street Journal article, the Gates Foundation was listed as one of several nonprofit organizations informally partnering to discuss efforts in preventing their tax-exempt statuses from allegedly being revoked by the Second Trump Administration. Being convened by the MacArthur Foundation, the “coalition” also consists of the Ford Foundation as well as the Charles Koch Foundation and the Council on Foundations. A statement released by a Gates Foundation spokesperson claimed, “[p]reserving the sector’s charitable status is essential to ensuring that nonprofits can continue delivering critical services that millions of people—in the U.S. and globally—rely on.” 46
In July 2025, the Gates Foundation joined a coalition including Ballmer Group, Stand Together, and the Valhalla Foundation to launch NextLadder Ventures, a $1 billion initiative aimed at expanding economic opportunity for low-income Americans. The 15-year effort supports for-profit and nonprofit entrepreneurs and organizations in developing tools to aid those suffering from job loss, housing instability, or health crises. Ryan Ripple currently serves as the CEO of NextLadder Ventures, previously serving as the founding director of U.S. economic mobility and opportunity at the Gates Foundation. In order to aid in this development, NextLadder ventures will employ Artificial Intelligence tools developed by Anthropic AI. 47
In 2025, Burkina Faso suspended Target Malaria, a Gates Foundation-supported research project aimed at curbing malaria transmission by releasing genetically modified mosquitoes. The government cited domestic opposition and rising anti-Western sentiment, ordering all samples destroyed, though global health organizations continue to stress the urgent need for malaria control in Africa. 48
On October 28, 2025, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent letters to the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation requesting to know how they were complying with national tax laws amid allegations that all three had previously provided funding to organizations and other entities with reported connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and affiliates. Each letter argued that “to maintain tax exempt status, an organization’s activities must be charitable in nature and may not directly support or promote the interests of a foreign government…I am writing today to ask you whether these reports are true or not and, if true, how your organization’s conduct comports with 501(c)(3) requirements.” 49 According to the news release from Sen. Grassley’s office, as well as previous tax filings, in 2023 the Gates Foundation had donated nearly $11.7 million to entities and organizations allegedly affiliated with the CCP. 49 In addition, a 2024 story by the Washington Examiner reported that in the same year, the Gates Foundation had donated $2 million to CRRC, a state-run manufacturing corporation, to assist with funding work on “water, sanitation, and hygiene.” 50 The U.S Department of Defense previously had CRRC under the Pentagon’s “1260H entity list” which listed entities “directly or indirectly owned, controlled or beneficially owned by” the Chinese military.” 50 Finally, it was reported that another $6.7 million had been donated to several state-run universities and institutions. Sen. Grassley’s press release also alleged that in fiscal year 2022 the Gates Foundation had donated “roughly $23 million to over 20 different Chinese entities, some of which were labeled “foreign governments.”” 50 49
As of February 2026, it was announced the Gates Foundation would partner with OpenAI to start a $50 million “Horizon 1000” initiative to provide AI capabilities to roughly 1,000 clinics in Africa. 51
In 2026, Bill Gates addressed staff in a town hall meeting regarding his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. Gates apologized for bringing foundation executives into meetings with Epstein and said the relationship was “the opposite of the values of the Foundation.” He acknowledged that the association had negatively affected the organization’s reputation, describing its work as “reputational sensitive.” 52
Some have criticized the Gates Foundation by pointing to the fact there are three trustees deciding how billions of dollars controlled by the world’s largest philanthropic foundation are spent. Pablo Eisenberg of Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute told NBC News, “That is much too small and narrow a board to run a foundation whose combined assets will one day exceed the budgets of all but 30 percent of the countries in the world,” which he said “offers little protection to America’s taxpayers or the national interest.” Diana Aviv of the Independent Sector coalition of 600 charities said larger boards are wiser and provide necessary “checks and balances” required for good decision-making and oversight. 18
The Gates Foundation has faced criticism from the left for breaking its social commitments. A Los Angeles Times investigation published in 2007 found that $8.7 billion, or 41 percent of Gates Foundation assets, were invested in companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy. 20 These include companies responsible for heavy air pollution in the Niger Delta to pharmaceutical firms whose pricing policies have hampered access to antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients in developing nations, a primary Gates Foundation focus area. 18
The Gates Foundation has been criticized for too-broad funding through an interconnected network of organizations and individuals across academia and the NGO and business sectors which University College London Dr. David McCoy said in 2012, “allows it to leverage influence through a kind of ‘group-think’ in international health.” And in 2008 the head of malaria research for the World Health Organization accused a s-called Gates Foundation “cartel” of suppressing diversity of scientific opinion, claiming the organization was “accountable to no-one other than itself.” 6
A 2016 report from the far-left British activist organization Global Justice Now analyzed Gates Foundation programs and concluded the foundation’s giving is far from a neutral charitable strategy, but instead an ideological commitment to “promote neoliberal economic policies and corporate globalization.” 53 The report authors called on an international investigation into Gates Foundation spending. 54
Todd Pierce, a former Gates Foundation chief digital officer, filed a lawsuit against the foundation in April 2017, alleging he was misled about the scope of his job when he was recruited, and that he was fired for clashing with executives who didn’t believe in his new role. The complaint stated, “During his exit interviews with several co-workers, they admitted that the job he was expected to perform was not the job he had been promised and that he hadn’t been told the truth about his position.” 55
In 2024–2025, renewed scrutiny emerged regarding historical interactions between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and associates of convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein. Reporting based on U.S. Department of Justice document releases indicated that between 2013 and 2019, the foundation awarded approximately $8 million in grants to the International Peace Institute (IPI) to support polio eradication initiatives in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 56
Documents reviewed by media outlets suggested that Epstein had contact with IPI officials and, at times, was included in communications related to the grants, including program updates and regional information. However, there was no evidence presented that grant funds were used for purposes other than their stated charitable objectives.56
A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation stated that its grantmaking to IPI was focused solely on programmatic goals and that Epstein had no involvement in the foundation’s grantmaking processes. The foundation has also indicated it is reviewing materials related to past communications involving Epstein and foundation staff. 56
Separately, Bill Gates publicly acknowledged maintaining contact with Epstein until 2014 and expressed regret over the relationship. 56
| Year | Total Assets | Total Revenue | Total Expenses | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $78,673,465,696 | $8,084,056,958 | $7,696,309,308 | View |
| 2023 | $76,951,451,400 | $7,810,137,842 | $8,837,147,189 | View |
| 2022 | $68,907,954,709 | $6,988,022,771 | $7,268,313,012 | View |
| 2021 | $54,953,064,583 | $6,739,008,078 | $5,404,355,222 | View |
| 2020 | $51,780,459,259 | $6,827,303,678 | $5,016,321,070 | View |
All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:
Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years:
All-time grants given statistics from Candid dataset:
Selection of highest value grants given from the last seven years: