Interactive: 25 years of Gates Foundation funding

CANBERRA — More than $3 billion was distributed in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2018. This year, 112 grants have already been awarded, totaling $316 million. The analysis of grant data, available through the Gates Foundation’s grantmaking database and available as a new Tableau interactive, provides insight into $58 billion in grants awarded to almost 6,000 recipients covering more than 19,000 initiatives since 1995. This includes grants from the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation which were combined to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The data shows a foundation that has rapidly expanded beyond its United States roots into a global organization that supports ideas generated in 62 countries — with its core focus transitioned from education to global health and development. View and interact with the data in this Tableau visualization. The growing impact of the Gates Foundation In 1995, grants began small — a total of 14 grants were awarded totaling $16 million. All recipients were based in the U.S. with just two programs supported: United States and global development. The University of Washington received the majority of this first year of funding — $13 million to establish the Mary Gates Scholarship, promoting leadership and independence in education and community participation. With the influence of the Gates Learning Foundation, education was the core business for grants. The anticipated merger of the two foundations into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation saw the value of grants awarded surpassing $2.5 billion in 1999, including an award of $750 million to form Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. But the focus was still primarily the U.S. — the largest award was a $1.3 billion grant to the United Negro College Fund for the Gates Millennium Scholarship program. And geographically, it was only supporting grantees in eight nations. By 2003, the U.S. focus in programming had been demoted as a program priority for the foundation. Since then, the leading programs based on grant values have shifted between global health and global development initiatives. 2003 also saw the foundation reach a peak for the average grant and grants award — an average of $10 million. The following year, it dropped to an average of $3 million and has steadily remained between $2 and $3 million with the occasional boost due to a new program funded. By 2008, the geographic footprint was showing the global impact of the foundation, supporting grantees from 40 countries for the first time including Colombia, Ghana, Egypt, Peru, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam. By 2016, the value of total grants peaked at $6 billion for the year — and average of $4 million per grant. This coincided with a $1.5 billion boost to Gavi to support its work for an addition 60 months. Since this peak, the subsequent years have seen a reduction in grants, dropping by 25% in 2017 and an additional 30% in 2018. But geographically, the foundation’s influence has continued to grow. The 2018 trends 2018 saw the Gates Foundation award 1,662 grants worth more than $3.14 billion. 1,069 unique grantee recipients are identified in the data. The location of grantees reached a peak in 2018 with 62 countries supported — increasing 27% on the previous year. Puerto Rico was among the new grantee recipients, with $345,000 to support the work of the Puerto Rico Education Fund in improving academic achievement in public schools. Trinidad and Tobago was an additional first-time recipient with WHYFARM awarded $100,000 to improve food security by engaging young people in agriculture. But despite the growing geographic footprint, grantees within the U.S. still account for 67% of total awards and 58% of the annual grant value. Switzerland was the second leading grantee country by value ($297 million), followed by the United Kingdom ($258 million). By programs, global health was a funding priority for the year. 524 grants were awarded supporting global health totaling $1.2 billion. Drilling deeper into the grant categories, family planning programming was a key focus, accounting for 11.3% of total grant value awarded. Jhpiego Corporation was awarded $39 million to support work in family planning, including $30 million awarded to support a second phase of a data monitoring and reporting resource. FHI Partners received $29 million to develop new contraceptive products, and Pathfinder International was awarded $27 million including $15 million for contraceptive policies and planning in Niger. The Gates Foundation’s secondary focus in 2018 was malaria, accounting for 11.1% of the total grant value for the year. 32 grantees shared in the total value, including recipients from Kenya, Namibia, and Senegal — and 2018 was the fourth largest year for malaria funding with the peak recorded in 2009 ($495 million in grants). Drug development, access to medication, and implementation of programs were among the initiatives supporting the foundation’s work in malaria with the Medicines for Malaria Venture, PATH, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria the leading grant recipients. The third focus area for the Gates Foundation in 2018 was agricultural development. This category accounted for 11% of the total grant value awarded for the year. Grants for this category supported plant breeding, supply chains, economic empowerment, and more with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Rice Research Institute and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics the three leading grantees. In 2018, the Gates Foundation supported initiatives both big and small, with grants ranging from $180 million to just $400 at the bottom end. Top grantees for 2018 From the total of 1,069 grant recipients in 2018, the top five received 15% of the total grant value, with their work supporting health, economic empowerment, and innovative funding. The top-ranked grant recipient in 2018 was Switzerland-based Medicines for Malaria Venture. This organization, which aims to “discover, develop, and deliver new and affordable drugs for malaria in partnership with the private sector,” received more than $180 million in grants from the foundation for the year. The largest of three awarded grants was a $180 million and 73 month project that aims to “further drug discovery and development” for the delivery of innovative medicines for the management of malaria in malaria-endemic countries. Despite not receiving funding in 2017, the Medicines for Malaria Venture has been a Gates recipient for almost two decades, receiving its first funding in 2000 — a $25 million grant supporting its work over 60 months. The largest grant was awarded in 2013 totaling $185 million, and has received 15 grants totaling $721 million. The second largest recipient for the year was PATH. This U.S. based organization innovates to improve health access and received a total of 27 grants in 2018 supporting malaria, polio, tuberculosis, and family planning initiatives — among many others. In total, PATH received $103 million in grants for the year, the largest a $55 million grant to develop FxRTS,S as a tool for Plasmodium falciparum elimination. Despite increasing one spot in rankings from 2017, its funding dropped from $240 million. The third largest grant recipient was the U.S. based Clinton Health Access Initiative, which received 13 grants valued at $66 million in total with the Gates Foundation supporting immunization programs, family planning, TB, HIV, maternal health, and public awareness. CHAI’s largest grant was a $32 million award to identify, develop, and scale new approaches to enhance immunization coverage globally which helped it jump to 35th in the ranking after receiving $21 million in 2017. In fourth place was New Venture Fund, which was awarded $59 million from six grants in 2018 including a $50 million award to support the development of Co-Impact — a global philanthropic collaborative for “systems changes to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide.” And in fifth place was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was awarded $52 million from 14 grants — the largest a $20 million award to increase economic empowerment for rural women working in the agricultural sectors of Ethiopia and Nigeria. Interacting with the data The Gates Foundation grants database has been collated by Devex and put together in a new Tableau interactive to facilitate greater understanding of how and who the foundation awards grants to. View and interact with the data. The data is presented as annual reports, grant category insights, grantee origin insights, and profiles with the ability to access further grant details. We encourage you to interact with the data and share your insights with other global development professionals.