The OECD Development Assistance Committee tracks over 40 philanthropic foundations, whose gross development disbursement in 2019 totaled $9 billion — a 3% increase from the $8.7 billion given in 2018. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s database sources information on official development assistance, grant spending, and other investments by bilateral donors and private philanthropic foundations — reporting on top sectors, geographical and organizational disbursements, and key programs.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which in 2019 accounted for 46% of private philanthropies’ total development disbursements, has been the top private donor since 2009. But there are others: Devex looked into the top grant-making foundations aside from the Gates Foundation, excluding microfinance and other non-grant-making foundations such as the BBVA Microfinance Foundation.
Together, these foundations spent almost $1.1 billion in 2019 — just over a quarter of the Gates Foundation’s development financing in that year.