Gates Foundation announces rebrand and record budget

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is — at least in name — no more. As it enters its 25th year, the world’s biggest development-focused foundation has rebranded as simply the Gates Foundation — and it also announced its biggest-ever budget. The dropping of “Bill & Melinda” from the name comes after the founding couple’s split back in 2021. Melinda French Gates then walked away as co-chair of the foundation last year to embark on her own philanthropic endeavor, known as Pivotal Ventures. In a press release announcing the change, the foundation said the new name honored the contributions of Bill and Melinda but also Bill Gates Sr., Bill’s late father who had his own foundation which later merged with his son’s. The name change also comes with a new black-and-yellow logo. At the same time, the foundation announced a record budget for 2025, at $8.74 billion. It represents a relatively modest increase on the year before, at less than 2% growth, but it’s a third up on its 2021 budget. In 2022, the foundation set a goal to distribute $9 billion annually by 2026 and has been steadily increasing its spending since. The announcement comes just days before Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as U.S. president for the second time, with fears that he may seek to slash the aid budget and withdraw the U.S. from much of its development work. It also follows a difficult year for European aid, which saw some of the world’s biggest donors cut their aid budgets. All of this leaves the Gates Foundation as an increasingly big player in the world of development. Announcing the news, CEO Mark Suzman didn’t mention Trump or global politics, but he did refer to “the greatest headwinds to health and development progress we’ve seen in a generation,” without expanding on what those headwinds might be. “This funding reflects our commitment to doing our part to reach people who will benefit most from innovations and programs that improve health and expand access to opportunity,” he added. Advocating for greater development investments from donor countries is also listed in the release as one of the areas the foundation will be working on, alongside maternal health, infectious diseases, climate resilience among smallholder farmers, and economic empowerment and agency for women and girls. There have been questions about how much the foundation will continue to focus on gender following French Gates’s departure. While the announcement suggests it will continue, there aren’t yet numbers available to indicate whether that support will be at the same level as before. The Gates Foundation was founded in 2000 and has since spent more than $50 billion on global development activities. It’s likely to find itself in the spotlight this year if it becomes more influential as government donors withdraw. Already, it’s co-hosting Gavi’s high-level replenishment with the European Commission, which is an unusual arrangement. And if Trump withdraws the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation will be left as the multilateral institution’s biggest donor.