Bill Gates donated $8 billion to the Melinda French Gates Foundation due to their divorce.

As part of the couple’s high-profile divorce announced in 2021, Gates agreed to make a $7.88 billion donation — one of the largest ever — to French Gates’ private foundation, according to a tax filing, as previously reported on The New York Times DealBook.

Gates’ donation caused the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation’s assets to skyrocket by more than 1,000%, to about $7.4 billion in 2024, according to a tax return. This represents an increase from $604 million at the end of 2023.

French Gates’ Pivotal Philanthropies now finds itself among the ranks of philanthropic power players, just over a year after Gates and French Gates separated their philanthropic efforts in May 2024. Among these power players is Mackenzie Scott, who donated $7.2 billion to various organizations in 2025 alone. Scott donated 26 billion dollars since 2020just after his divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Gates’ multibillion-dollar donation to Pivotal is part of the previously pledged $12.5 billion that French Gates said would be disbursed through his “deal with Bill.” These funds have been fully disbursed and Gates’ donation constitutes a portion of the money, a spokesperson for Pivotal Philanthropies confirmed. Fortune.

After resigning in May 2024 as co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, now the Gates Foundation, French Gates said the $12.5 billion would be used “on behalf of women and families.” French Gates, who has a net worth of $17.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, previously said Fortune billionaires like her »owe something to society.“

It’s unclear where exactly the additional $4.6 billion was allocated. The funds could have been given to Pivotal, French Gates’ limited liability company, which does not file tax returns, according to DealBook.

Founded in 2022, the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, which aims to “accelerate the pace of social progress for women and youth,” operates within a group of organizations that also includes the Pivotal Initiatives Fund for policy and advocacy work as well as Pivotal Ventures, which focuses on direct investments and partnerships, according to Pivotal. website. Although Pivotal Philanthropies is subject to strict 501(c)(3) rules governing minimum payments, restrictions on internal transactions, and detailed reporting requirements, as an LLC, Pivotal Ventures’ operations are not subject to strict reporting, giving it more freedom, flexibility, and anonymity than a nonprofit organization.

One organization that has already benefited from Pivotal Philanthropies’ previous donations is a Durham-based nonprofit. Rewrite the codewhich supports young women working or wishing to embark on a technological career. The organization, now in its 10th year, according to founder Sue Harnett, received $5 million from Pivotal Philanthropies in 2025.

Thanks in part to funding from Pivotal, Harnett grew his organization from one employee in 2019 to 26 this year. In 2026, the company seeks to help computer science students and women early in technology careers train for a world where AI is ubiquitous.

Pivotal’s funding has been instrumental in keeping these programs going and, more importantly, making them free to women who need them, Harnett said.

“It’s transformative,” Harnett said Fortune. “It’s allowed us to serve thousands more women than we ever could have. It’s allowed us to build a staff with a variety of talents that we really need to be able to serve our members’ wives as best we can.”