NEW YORK (AP) — Melinda French Gates is offering to donate up to $1 million to two nonprofits to encourage donations on GivingTuesday, which has become a key annual giving day for nonprofits.
For more than a decade, charities have asked their networks for donations or other support on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
“It’s a great time to remind people that we are better off when we give back and that we can all give back,” French Gates said in an interview about her enthusiasm for GivingTuesday. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was an early supporter of GivingTuesday, which began as a hashtag and project at the 92nd Street Y in New York and has since grown into its own organization.
Last year, donors gave an estimated $3.1 billion on GivingTuesday, but the overall number of participants declined. Asha Curran, CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday, which calculated the estimate, said games like French Gates aid encourage people to donate.
“We are committed to the belief that philanthropy is not just in the hands of the super-rich,” she said. “That it really takes everyone to contribute to a healthy society through generosity.”
Una Osili, associate dean of Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, says that even if fewer households donate, donations may remain stable because those who donate give more.
“The optimist in me would certainly say that there are many reasons to believe that willingness to donate will at least remain stable,” Osili said. “But what we have seen in recent years is that inflation in particular, even if moderate, is a problem for many everyday households.”
French Gates plans to donate up to $500,000 in donations to two organizations through her organization Pivotal: the Vote Mama Foundation, which supports mothers running for political office, and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, which advocates for people who take care of others. The organizations have 10 days to collect the donations and direct donors to donate through the nonprofit crowdfunding platform Every.org, which tracks matched donations.
“That was Melinda. This was a complete surprise for us,” said Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder and CEO of the 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 Commission to apply campaign funds to fund child care. Now all federal candidates can pay for child care with campaign funds, and many states have passed similar laws.
“It is used by men. It is used by women. It’s used by moms and dads and Democrats and Republicans,” Grechen Shirley said. “But the majority of the money is used by women, and a lot of that money is used by women of color. So it really has the ability to change the political landscape.”
Through her dedication and commitment, French Gates has advocated for paid family leave, caregiver support, and more affordable child care. She supported Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, but said Harris’ defeat would not stop her from continuing her work.
The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers is one of the first organizations to speak out about the work of caregiving, French Gates said. Paurvi Bhatt, who directs the institute, said French Gates had a long and valued relationship with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died last year.
“It’s based on a long-standing, close relationship,” Bhatt said of the fitting gift.
This public game on GivingTuesday is the latest commitment French Gates has made since leaving the Gates Foundation in May. (French Gates and Bill Gates, her ex-husband and billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, announced their divorce in 2021.) She pledged $1 billion to support women and families over two years. That included $250 million to support improving women’s health worldwide and gave 12 leaders $20 million each to distribute to nonprofits of their choice through the end of 2026.
“The reason I said so firmly, ‘This is what I’m doing next,’ is because I wanted people to know that I wasn’t going away,” French Gates said. “My values are still there. And this work around ‘How do we create a more just society?’ There’s still so much work to be done in the United States.”
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The Associated Press receives funding for reporting in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for reporting on women in the workforce and in statehouses from Pivotal Ventures.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
