In 2024 and 2025, the Gates Foundation provided US$10.3 billion in funding to 2,300+ grantees. In this article, we break down the priority areas, sectors, and regions during this period, along with key insights on the top grantees.
The Gates Foundation is one of the largest philanthropic donors worldwide, providing financial support to tackle poverty, disease, and inequities across the globe. The organization was founded in 2000 through the merger of two existing foundations: the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation.
In 2024 alone, the foundation committed US$346 million in funding to Kenya — the African country with the most grants approved. This is equivalent to 11% of the total official development assistance (ODA) the country received during that same period, which shows the relevance of this donor.
In this article, we answer three key questions to guide future grant applicants in their proposal preparation:
- Which regions are strategic?
- What are the priority funding areas?
- Who are the top grantees?
To answer these questions, we analyzed the grant records available from Gates’ Grants Database for the years 2024 and 2025, which showed that 5,023 grants were committed during this period.
You can find extra information about each of these insights in the sections below.
Insight #1: Africa benefits from 39% of the grants approved, making it the priority region served
In 2024 and 2025, Africa was targeted by 1,955 grants committed by the Gates Foundation — 39% of the total —, turning it into the most benefited continent by this donor. America-based and global projects followed in the priority list, supported by 28% and 26% of the Gates’ grants, respectively. The Asian region ranked next, with 20% of the approved projects, while Europe and Oceania benefited from a minority of grants.
Figure I – Number of grants, per continent, committed by the Gates Foundation during the period 2024-2025. This data was retrieved directly from the Committed Grants Database of The Gates Foundation (version: 2 March 2026). Note: since some grants are multi-regional, they appear in more than one regional category.
Insight #2: Global health and development public awareness & analysis was the priority area in the past two years
While the foundation website states they have four areas of impact (health, gender equality, global development, and education), the grant attribution during 2024 and 2025 was not distributed equally across them. The topic “Global health and development public awareness and analysis” gathered 752 grants during this period — the highest number of committed grants among all topics, indicating this has been the donor’s funding priority.
Female empowerment follows with 462 financed projects. However, in 2025, the third priority topic has shifted: the number of grants destined to maternal, newborn, child nutrition, and health increased by 34%, surpassing K-12 (education system covering kindergarten through 12th grade) and postsecondary education grants.
Table I – Top 10 funding priority areas of The Gates Foundation during the period 2024-2025, as determined by the number of grants committed in this timeframe (ordered by the number of grants in 2025). This data was retrieved directly from the Committed Grants Database of The Gates Foundation (version: 2 March 2026). Note: each grant can cover more than one priority area.
Insight #3: The World Health Organization was awarded the highest number of grants, totaling US$438M in funding
The top 3 grantees of the Gates Foundation — as determined by the number of committed grants — were organizations focused on health, which is not surprising given that the previous data already established that health topics are of great importance for this donor.
Top 3 grantees of the Gates Foundation in 2024-2025:
- World Health Organization (WHO): a United Nations agency working to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. WHO got 71 grants approved by the foundation between 2024 and 2025, totaling over US$438 million in committed funding.
- PATH: an international nonprofit dedicated to promoting health innovation with the aim of increasing patient access to healthcare worldwide. PATH received 54 grants from the Gates Foundation during this period, which equals to a financial support of nearly US$112 million.
- Wits Health Consortium: an entity created to support the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) in their efforts to advance health research, innovation, and training. The Wits Health Consortium achieved the approval of 47 projects that will bring US$80 million in funding to the institution.
Table II – Top 10 grantees of The Gates Foundation during the period 2024-2025, as determined by the number of grants committed to each recipient during this period. This data was retrieved directly from the Committed Grants Database of The Gates Foundation (version: 2 March 2026).
You can analyze each of the Top-10 Gates Foundation grantees by reviewing their award history, job announcements, partners and competitors. All this information is available on www.developmentaid.org.
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Insight #4: Six out of the 10 organizations with the most grants belong to the academia and research sector
Institutions that fall under the academia and research sector represented 60% of the recipients in the top 10 grantees, revealing that the Gates Foundation is prioritizing research- and innovation-led projects. It is, however, important to highlight that we considered nonprofits that supported or performed research activities as their core activity part of the “academia and research sector” instead of the more generic “NGO” category.
Figure II – Types of organizations that receive the most grants from the Gates Foundation. This analysis is limited to the 10 recipients with the highest number of grants between 2024 and 2025, which were retrieved directly from the Committed Grants Database of The Gates Foundation (version: 2 March 2026).
Insight #5: US$200B budget to be granted till 2045
In May 2025, Bill Gates — the current foundation chair — announced that US$200 billion will be distributed till 2045, focusing on three key priorities: (1) Maternal, newborn, child nutrition and health; (2) Infectious diseases; and (3) Poverty reduction.
In January 2026, the foundation’s governing board endorsed a “historic US$9 billion annual payout” – which means nearly doubling the 2024 and 2025 budgets. It would be rational to expect similar commitments for the next few years as well.
Along with this budget expansion news, Bill Gates shared that the Gates Foundation will be closing at the end of 2045, leaving a bittersweet sentiment among grantees.
Final thoughts
Grant funding trends — including the shifts in priority areas of key donors — provide critical information for international development organizations that heavily rely on grants. By keeping up with these trends, organizations can identify which donors best align with their upcoming projects or detect if their main sponsor is decreasing the financial support in their area of action. Ultimately, having this type of intelligence enables you to make better, data-driven decisions for your organization.
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