Gates Foundation Grants

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, with an endowment of about $75 billion and annual grant payments of roughly $8 billion. The foundation's work is organized around four global divisions:

• Global Health — vaccines, infectious disease (TB, HIV, malaria, polio eradication), maternal and newborn health, nutrition, primary health care
• Global Development — agriculture (smallholder farmers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa), financial inclusion, water/sanitation/hygiene, family planning
• Global Growth and Opportunity + Gender Equality — economic mobility programs in low- and middle-income countries
• U.S. Program — K–12 education (with a focus on math achievement, postsecondary success, and historically underserved students), early learning, and the Pacific Northwest local communities

Gates is not a traditional open-call funder. The vast majority of grants are invited or commissioned by program officers who already know the field and the organization. The two well-known exceptions are:

• Grand Challenges — a long-running family of open RFPs on specific scientific or programmatic challenges (e.g., "Catalyzing Equitable Artificial Intelligence Use", "New Ways to Save Newborn Lives"). Grand Challenges Explorations awards typically run $100K for early ideas, with follow-on awards up to $1M+ for proven concepts.
• U.S. Program open calls — Periodic RFPs for specific U.S. K–12 and postsecondary initiatives.

1. Read gatesfoundation.org/about/how-we-work/grant-opportunities to see what's currently open.
2. For Grand Challenges, go to grandchallenges.org and watch for RFPs in your field. Each call has its own deadline, page limits, and eligibility.
3. Submit a short Letter of Inquiry for invited solicitations — Gates does not accept full unsolicited proposals.
4. For invited proposals, work closely with the program officer who initiated the conversation. Gates proposals are highly tailored — there's no boilerplate that works.
5. Required content typically includes: project narrative aligned to a foundation strategy, theory of change, milestones and measurement plan, budget and budget narrative, organizational capacity, partner letters.
6. Decision timelines range from 3–4 months for Grand Challenges Explorations to 9–12 months for major strategic grants.

If you have no prior contact with Gates and no aligned RFP is open, the realistic strategy is to build a track record in one of their priority areas, publish your results, and become visible to program officers over time.