Grant and Funding Programs Offered by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)

The Gates Foundation is one of the world’s largest private philanthropic foundations, focused on creating a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. Based in the United States but active in more than 130 countries, the foundation channels substantial grant funding and strategic investments to partners that work on the front lines of global health, development, and education.

The foundation positions itself as a catalytic funder that can take risks others cannot. Its mission translates into large-scale financial support for organizations, research institutions, global alliances, and community-based groups. According to its own reporting, it has distributed more than US$100 billion in grant funding since 2000, with annual charitable support exceeding US$8 billion in 2024. Funding focuses on solutions with the potential to reach millions of people, such as vaccines, diagnostics, health‑system innovations, agricultural technologies, and education reforms.

Program areas are organized around major divisions: Global Health, Global Development, Global Growth & Opportunity, Gender Equality, Global Policy & Advocacy, and a U.S. Program. Within these sit dozens of program strategies such as immunization, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, maternal and newborn health, agricultural development, nutrition, digital public infrastructure, inclusive financial systems, family planning, K‑12 and postsecondary education, and economic mobility.

The foundation mainly funds external partners rather than operating programs directly. Its committed grants are the primary funding vehicle, representing over 90% of its charitable giving. Program officers identify needs in consultation with local stakeholders and technical experts, then solicit proposals by direct invitation, dialogue with potential partners, or open requests for proposals. Some opportunities are posted publicly as grant opportunities or under Grand Challenges initiatives.

Grantmaking follows a four‑stage process: developing the project concept, soliciting proposals, reviewing and approving proposals with appropriate due diligence, and then allocating funds and managing project close‑out. Throughout, program teams work closely with grantees on milestones, learning, and adaptation. The foundation also maintains a Strategic Investment Fund that uses equity, loans, and other instruments to support for‑profit companies working on products and services that advance its charitable goals, with any financial returns reinvested in programs.

The Gates Foundation emphasizes measurement and evaluation as core to its funding practice. Grantees work with program staff to define target results and critical indicators, and the foundation seeks selective, high‑quality evaluations adapted to each field. Policies such as the Global Access Statement and Indirect Cost Policy set expectations that funded innovations and data be widely accessible and affordable, particularly for low‑income populations.

For transparency, the foundation publishes financial information, policies, and a searchable database of committed grants dating back to 1994. It does not accept donations from the general public but encourages support to its grantees or to aligned vehicles such as Gates Philanthropy Partners.

Funding from the foundation reaches a wide spectrum of actors: multilateral health agencies and global funds, national and local governments, NGOs, universities and research institutes, social enterprises, and community organizations. Its grants are intended to benefit people in low‑ and middle‑income countries as well as marginalized communities in the United States, with particular attention to women, children, smallholder farmers, and underserved students.

Over more than two decades, this portfolio has supported major progress in areas such as childhood immunization, polio eradication efforts, malaria control, family planning, maternal and newborn health, agricultural resilience, and education outcomes. The foundation has publicly committed to continue this intensive grantmaking at least through 2045.