Melinda French Gates Still 'Absolutely' Committed to Giving Away Her Fortune After Leaving Foundation

Melinda French Gates “absolutely” still intends to give away her personal fortune after leaving the Gates Foundation in June.

The 59-year-old philanthropist confirmed her plans to give away the money during a July 23 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

When asked why she feels so strongly about doing so, French Gates said she felt “a responsibility to give back, and to do it in a way that’s incredibly thoughtful.”

“Anybody who’s grown up in this country has really been lucky and I don’t care who you are,” she told host Stephen Colbert. “If you are a billionaire, my gosh have you benefited from this country. So we should give back.”

French Gates is working with Pivotal Ventures, a company she founded in 2015, “to advance social progress by removing barriers that hold people back,” according to its website.

With Pivotal Ventures, French Gates is determined to ensure that “women’s rights are not only on the agenda, but that women are setting the agenda” — especially after watching women’s rights be rolled back internationally over the last few years.

Among her top goals is having more women run for office and are “well trained on the legislative agenda they want to help get passed.”

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French Gates acknowledged she is not the first to tackle this, but believes she can help “supercharge” the efforts being made by the organizations that came before her.

“What I saw, part of why our women’s rights got rolled back in the United States is that those organizations were starved for funding, and they were playing defense,” she told Colbert.

To further her goal, French Gates has pledged to donate $1 billion over the next two years so these organizations “can play on offense.”

French Gates announced the decision in an op-ed for The New York Times published on May 28, noting that the funds will go toward “people and organizations working on behalf of women and families around the world.”

“When we allow this cause to go so chronically underfunded, we all pay the cost,” she said in the article.

Now that she has left the foundation she co-founded, French Gates told Colbert she feels she can use her voice and resources “any way I want to,” something she has wanted for quite some time. 

With that voice, she is eager to help kickstart the next generation of leaders. “They’ve got the fresh ideas,” French Gates said. “Let’s help them, fund them, but lets also help them find other leaders that are funded to get their ideas out into society and into good policy-making.”