Melinda French Gates' monumental move after departure from shared foundation with ex Bill Gates

Melinda French Gates will grant $US250 million (approx. $372 million) to support women's health around the world through an open call for nonprofits to apply for funding.

The pledge announced overnight signals a new chapter in her individual philanthropic giving since departing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year and is part of a two-year $US1 billion (approx. $1.5 billion) commitment that French Gates made in May to support women and families around the world.

Haven Ley, chief strategy officer at French Gates' organisation Pivotal Ventures, said the grant competition was a "curtain raiser" to a likely new focus on funding women's health globally. Previously, Pivotal had primarily funded organisations working to advance women's power in the United States.

READ MORE: Macron 'super proud' of wife's surprising move

READ MORE: Miranda Kerr reveals private health battle

"By focusing on women's health, she's expanded her definition of women's power to include a precondition that women must have their health to be powerful," Ley said, speaking of French Gates, who also has 20 years of experience funding global health through the Gates Foundation.

Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is running the grant competition, called Action for Women's Health. It has previously worked with both French Gates and billionaire author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to award $US40 million (approx. $59.5 million) in 2019 to support nonprofits building women's power in the U.S. Scott then also gave away $US640 million (approx. $952 million) to community-based nonprofits in March through a similar open call.

This new open call will give at least 100 nonprofit organisations around the world between $US1 million and $US5 million (approx. $1.5 million to $7.4 million) in unrestricted funding. It will prioritise giving to organisations for whom that amount will make a big difference, though there is no restriction on the size of the organisations who are eligible to apply.

The deadline for nonprofits to register for the open call is December 3 and the application deadline, review process and final decision will stretch to the end of 2025.

The lengthy process includes a peer review by other applicants and an outside review by a panel of experts.

"Most of philanthropy remains invitation-only decision making behind closed doors," said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. "And what we have developed is a way to do an open call, a way to broaden access to philanthropic opportunities, that is also a process that is humane and equitable."

READ MORE: J.Lo breaks silence on Ben Affleck divorce

READ MORE: Sandra Bullock makes first public appearance since partner's death

She said their initial model focused on scaling a solution, with a minimum commitment from donors of $US10 million (approx. $14.8 million) over five years, but now, they are also supporting donors who are interested in scaling a field.

Pivotal also is purposely considering a broad range of interventions related to women's health, which could include mental health and menopause, Ley said. They hope that learning where opportunities and gaps in funding and resources are may help Pivotal design its new strategy, she said.

Sarah Baird, a professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University, studies the impacts of different interventions on adolescents, especially girls, and what helps improve their wellbeing throughout their lives and their children's lives.

Speaking in general, she would advise donors to work through existing institutions and to have a broader focus rather than on a single disease. She pointed to mental health for women, and men, as being an underfunded area along with gender-based violence and overall, the economic benefits that women produce, if they are healthy enough to work.

"We're not going to get very far if we just focus on the traditional pregnancy and the traditional mortality," she said, which she emphasised are also critical.

The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce and in statehouses from Pivotal Ventures.

READ MORE: One question you're not allowed to ask superstar singer

READ MORE: He was our next action hero. A split second on set derailed everything

When French Gates first announced her $US1 billion (approx. $1.5 billion) commitment in May, she detailed $US200 million (approx. $298 million) in new grants to groups working in the United States to protect women's rights and advance their power and influence. She also gave 12 individuals $US20 million (approx. $29.8 million) each to donate however they chose and said she would announce an open call to give away $US250 million (approx. $372 million) this American autumn.

In an op-ed in the New York Times in May, she wrote about the open call, "I hope to lift up groups with personal connections to the issues they work on. People on the front lines should get the attention and investment they deserve, including from me."

Historically, giving to organisations that serve women and girls has represented less than two per cent of all charitable gifts in the United States.

On Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia), the Women & Girls Index, which tracks gifts to these organisations, found they received $US10.2 billion (appox. $15.2 billion) in philanthropic support in 2021, the latest year of complete giving data available.

In raw dollars, that figure is a milestone, said Jacqueline Ackerman, interim director the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University. But she said, over ten years of analysing these gifts, giving to women and girls has never grown faster than overall giving.

"To surpass that really means not just the Melinda French Gateses, but stepping up donations from everyone who cares about these issues across the income and wealth spectrums," she said.

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.