A private philanthropic foundation established in 2000 by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Gates Foundation focuses on offering the opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people—from poverty to health to education. The foundation works on building partnerships that bring together resources, expertise, and vision—partnering with organizations around the globe to identify issues, find answers, and drive change. In 2022 the foundation funded grantees in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Internationally, the foundation has funded work in 130 countries.

The foundation's four strategic approaches include:

• Spurring innovations that improve the human condition by stepping in where governments and businesses leave gaps.
• Strengthening global cooperation by bringing together governments, businesses, philanthropies, and communities to save and transform lives around the world.
• Creating market incentives for lifesaving products by supporting the development and delivery of vaccines, treatments, diagnostics, and other tools for those most in need.
• Generating high-quality data and evidence that drive progress by showing what's working and what isn't.

Grantmaking areas include:

• Gender Equality
• Global Development
• Health
• Education

The foundation also maintains a Charitable Sector Support initiative.

The United States Program Division, in relation to U.S. learn-and-work ecosystem efforts, works to ensure everyone in the United States can learn, grow, and get ahead, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or family income. The Education-to-Workforce Indicator Framework (E-W Framework), developed in partnership with experts representing more than 15 national and community organizations, provides guidance for cross-sector collaborative work and alignment of education-to-workforce data systems supported by the foundation. The Framework promotes the use of a common set of metrics and principles to assess and address disparities along the pre-K-to-workforce continuum.

Areas of grantmaking in the U.S. Program Division include:

• Data
• Early Learning Solutions
• Economic Mobility and Opportunity
• K-12 Education
• Pathways
• Postsecondary Success
• Washington State

On May 8, 2025, Founder Bill Gates announced that the Foundation will spend the next twenty years giving away the majority of his fortune and on December 31, 2045, the Foundation will close.

Resources

Foundation Fact Sheet

Ongoing Work

Stories, Research, & News

E-W Framework

Press Release on Foundation Future