Annual Report 2022
LETTER FROM THE CFO
At the Gates Foundation, our values and mission haven’t changed since our doors opened more than two decades ago. We are committed to tackling the greatest inequities in the world, by focusing on improving people’s health and creating the conditions for them to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
While our North Star won’t change, the way we live out our values and pursue our mission is constantly evolving based on the lessons we learn from our partners and evidence about what’s working and what isn’t. As we share our 2022 annual report, I want to highlight two such evolutions that help contextualize the numbers you see below.
The most obvious difference between 2021 and 2022 is the significantly larger payout by the Gender Equality division. This is the culmination of years of effort to fully reflect the importance of gender equality throughout our work.
Over time, we came to see that we could only achieve our goals for global health and development if we took a more intentional approach to addressing the barriers that hold back women and girls. As a result, in 2020, the foundation created the Gender Equality division, which has both launched new areas of work and taken over the strategy, planning, and management of existing areas of work.
In 2022, three teams and their budgets were moved into the Gender Equality division: Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health—Discovery and Tools (from the Global Health Division); Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (from the Global Development Division); and Family Planning (also from Global Development). These changes are reflected in funding increases in Gender Equality and decreases in the Global Health and Global Development divisions. (There was some increase in the Gender Equality division’s budget not connected to these structural realignments, but it was relatively small.) The divisions continue to work closely together to apply a gender lens to work across the foundation.
The second important evolution to highlight is that in January 2022, the foundation announced a newly expanded board of trustees, appointing independent experts to provide fresh perspectives, strategic guidance, and fiduciary oversight.
The board’s remit includes approving the foundation’s annual budget and four-year plan. The board spent 2022 preparing to discharge its duties. In January 2023, it approved the foundation’s annual budget for the first time. At $8.3 billion, it is the largest budget in the foundation’s history.
Transparency is an important part of the foundation’s work, so we are pleased not only to share this overview of our financials but to make complete audited financial statements available on our website.
Thank you to the foundation’s employees and to all our partners. You do the work every day to advance our common goals, and you make sure we’re always learning and evolving so we can better serve people and communities around the world.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Ainslie
Chief Financial Officer
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Funding summary
Total charitable support |
$7,007,000,000* |
|---|
Program areas |
|---|
| Global Development | $1,890,000,000 |
| Global Health | $1,661,000,000 |
| Global Growth & Opportunity | $775,000,000 |
| Gender Equality | $747,000,000 |
| United States Program | $669,000.000 |
| Global Policy & Advocacy | $315,000,000 |
Non-program areas |
|---|
| Other Charitable Programs | $143,000,000 |
| Operational Expenditure | $807,000,000 |
Total direct grantee support |
$6,200,000,000* |
|---|
Global Development |
$1,890,000,000* |
|---|
| Polio | $831,000,000 |
| Immunization | $461,000,000 |
| Global Fund Core Contributions | $253,000,000 |
| India Office | $97,000,000 |
| Africa Offices | $92,000,000 |
| Global Health Agencies and Funds | $72,000,000 |
| Primary Health Care | $43,000,000 |
| Global Development Special Initiatives | $27,000,000 |
| Emergency Response | $14,000,000 |
Global Health |
$1,661,000,000* |
|---|
| Malaria | $276,000,000 |
| Vaccine Development | $194,000,000 |
| HIV | $194,000,000 |
| Tuberculosis | $175,000,000 |
| Discovery & Translational Sciences |
$172,000,000 |
| Global Health Special Initiatives | $133,000,000 |
| Pneumonia | $126,000,000 |
| Neglected Tropical Diseases | $117,000,000 |
| Biotech Accelerator | $96,000,000 |
| Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases | $92,000,000 |
| Integrated Development | $72,000,000 |
| Innovative Introduction | $14,000,000 |
Global Growth & Opportunity |
$775,000,000* |
|---|
| Agricultural Development | $462,000,000 |
| Financial Services for the Poor | $131,000,000 |
| Water, Sanitation & Hygiene | $91,000,000 |
| Nutrition | $52,000,000 |
| Global Education | $25,000,000 |
| Global Growth & Opportunity Special Initiatives | $14,000,000 |
Gender Equality |
$747,000,000* |
|---|
| Family Planning | $241,000,000 |
| Maternal, Newborn & Child Health | $209,000,000 |
| Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Discovery & Tools | $152,000,000 |
| Women’s Economic Empowerment | $56,000,000 |
| Gender Equality Special Initiatives | $52,000,000 |
| Gender Impact Accelerators | $23,000,000 |
| Women’s Health Innovations | $8,000,000 |
| Adolescent Learning Agenda | $6,000,000 |
United States Program |
$669,000,000* |
|---|
| K-12 Education | $290,000,000 |
| Postsecondary Success | $143,000,000 |
| U.S. Economic Mobility & Opportunity | $86,000,000 |
| U.S. Charters | $38,000,000 |
| Pathways | $33,000,000 |
| Data | $23,000,000 |
| Early Learning | $18,000,000 |
| Washington State | $18,000,000 |
| Scholarships | $16,000,000 |
| United States Program Special Initiatives | $4,000,000 |
Global Policy & Advocacy |
$315,000,000* |
|---|
| Global Program Advocacy & Communications ** | $97,000,000 |
| U.S. Program Advocacy & Communications ** | $48,000,000 |
| Europe, Middle East, and East Asia Office | $38,000,000 |
| Philanthropic Partnerships | $37,000,000 |
| Development Policy & Finance | $37,000,000 |
| Tobacco Control | $25,000,000 |
| China Office | $20,000,000 |
| Global Policy & Advocacy Special Initiatives | $13,000,000 |
Other Charitable Programs |
$143,000,000* |
|---|
* Financial figures are rounded to the nearest million and include grant payments, direct charitable contracts, and operational expenditures, but not program related investments (PRIs), for year ended December 31, 2022. Amounts in U.S. dollars.
** Amount does not include advocacy and policy spending to individual strategies.