The Most Promising Humanitarian Divisions Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation operates by the belief that every human life is equal and valuable. The organization is inspired by the innovative work that can help everyone across the globe lead healthier, happier lives. One of the foundation’s main focuses is on public health and giving those affected by poverty or hunger an opportunity to support themselves. By sharing valuable resources, the foundation aids these people for success.

The foundation identifies several of the world’s most concerning issues that can be solved on a global scale. Working with partners that have the resources to enact change globally, the foundation then scales solutions on a local level. Over the past decades, Bill Gates has donated over $30 billion through the foundation via grants while also securing the promise of over $365 billion through the billionaire’s Giving Pledge.

Their approach to grant money in every area they focus on is simple and highlights the collaboration, innovation, risk-taking, and solutions they aim to produce. Because there are too many charities that the foundation supports, here are five of the main divisions that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation support and the type of work they each support.

The Global Health Division

If there’s any type of charitable work Bill Gates is noted for, it's the search to eradicate Malaria. Their effort is currently worked on by a vast array of organizations and research groups, overseen by the global health division at BMGF. The focus aims to harness advancements in science and technology to save lives in developing countries. This division supports access to prove healthcare tools, funds research into revolutionary new studies and even increases access to health interventions for people that need it most. Some of the many areas in this division also focus on: HIV, tuberculosis, HIV, neglected tropical diseases, vaccine developments (including COVID-19), epidemiology, maternal and childhood health, along with other R&D sciences.

Global Development Division

This division in the foundation focuses on issues that disproportionately affect the world’s developing nations, holding back people who live there from achieving their best lives. The division remains a priority for the foundation due to inequity between different areas of the world, both in capital and career opportunities. It’s one of the most significant factors keeping the world from eradicating the challenges that affect us all.

The Global Development Division seeks to identify and fund high-impact solutions that can reduce health inequities and support everyone in their pursuit of living a healthy, productive life. Funding supports innovative approaches and expands upon existing ones to reach the underserved people in even the most remote areas.

Other areas this division focuses on include: emergency response development, global libraries, integrated health services delivery, nutrition, polio, family planning, maternal and child health, and vaccine delivery.

United States Division

The BMGF is a globally focused organization, but Bill Gates never forgot his roots and the inspiring gift of the education he received at home. He’s devoted an entire department of his foundation to promote educational opportunities, specifically in the United States. 

The divisions’ main goal is to ensure that all students graduate from high school, prepared for college and have the opportunity to earn a postsecondary degree with labor-market value. The foundation’s approach is to support the development of innovative practices in education that are unlikely to be generated by institutions working by themselves and can trigger change on a wide scale.

The division specialties include: K-12 education, economic mobility and opportunity, and postsecondary access. They also work to resolve issues of social inequity and poverty in Washington, where the Gates family lives and where foundation headquarters are based. 

Global Growth & Opportunity Division
BMGF has a straightforward philosophy when it comes to the issue of poverty. They believe that people become impoverished when markets don’t work for them. To fight this inequity, the division promotes innovative policies and products that dismantle barriers to economic opportunity and help people gain the support to move out of poverty, developing inclusive and sustainable where everyone can thrive.

Nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide live on less than US $1.90 a day, and over 1 billion suffer from chronic hunger. It’s a massive global issue that money alone can’t stop.  The company has invested in data and measurement to understand the underlying influencers of poverty and develop evidence-based solutions to scale.

This division features research on: agriculture development to end hunger, financial services and business loans for the underprivileged, gender equality, and water, sanitation, and hygiene improvement. 

Global Policy & Advocacy

The funds of BMGF are vast, but there is a limit to how much they can give. For years, Bill Gates has acknowledged that financial resources alone are not enough to advance all the causes that he cares passionately about, but that’s where the global policy and advocacy division kicks in.

Another essential division in the fight to improve humanity is the focus on promoting efforts that support public policies and advance the foundation's work. It also helps build strategic partnerships with governments and other public and private sectors while fostering public awareness of urgent global issues. This area fosters collaboration between teams who are dedicated to policy analysis, advocacy, media and communications, government relations and strengthening philanthropic pursuits and charities in the United States and abroad.

An intricately global organization, the foundation works in close collaboration with offices throughout the United States, Europe, China, South Africa, India, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. The main issues this division promotes include tobacco control, development policy and finance, and creating a global education learning strategy.