About Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust
The grants shown are large, infrequent transfers from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust to affiliated foundations (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Gates Foundation), indicating the Trust functions primarily as an endowment/funding vehicle rather than a programmatic grantmaker. No program-level or beneficiary-facing grants are listed, so program priorities cannot be inferred from these entries. Giving is concentrated in Seattle/WA (the organization’s home) and focused on institutional support for the operating foundations' charitable work.
Who They Fund
unspecified/general publicnonprofit organizations (unspecified)
Giving Approach
Very large, infrequent internal grants to affiliated foundations; few recipients; no direct programmatic grants shown
Funding Style
unrestricted supportgeneral operating supportfoundation-directed grantmakingflexible/undesignated funding
Notable grantees: BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION, GATES FOUNDATION
Topics
About Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust shows up in the record as a funding vehicle for the charitable purposes of the Gates Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with transfers measured in billions rather than the smaller operating grants seen at many foundations. The largest recent grant listed is $8,096,000,000 to Gates Foundation in 2025, followed by $7,751,200,000 to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2024 and $6,806,925,000 in 2023 to the same foundation. That pattern points to a trust structured around institutional support, not direct program grants to external nonprofits or individuals. The named recipients are all Seattle-based, and the grant descriptions are identical across the top awards, emphasizing support for the charitable purposes of the affiliated foundations. For nonprofit researchers, the key takeaway is that this trust functions as a capital source behind the operating foundations rather than a separate, beneficiary-facing grantmaker. Its giving record here is compact, highly concentrated, and directed to related organizations rather than a wide field of outside grantees.
What Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Funds
The available grants center on broad charitable support rather than topic-specific awards. In 2025, the trust gave $8,096,000,000 to Gates Foundation to fund the charitable purposes of the foundation. In 2024, it gave $7,751,200,000 to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the same purpose, and in 2023 it sent $6,806,925,000 to the same recipient under the same language. Because the listed grants all use the same purpose text, the record does not break out program areas such as health, education, or poverty reduction. What is clear is that the trust’s role is to resource the work of the affiliated foundations at a very large scale, with the named recipients serving as the operational channel for that charitable activity.
How Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Gives
The grant-size distribution is extremely large and tightly clustered: p25 is $7,042,993,750, median is $7,279,062,500, and p75 is $7,515,131,250. The recent record shows repeated transfers across consecutive years, all to affiliated Seattle organizations, which suggests a recurring funding pattern rather than isolated one-off awards. The trust is classified as a regular funder, not a donor-advised fund, and it does not fund individuals or make program-related investments. The grant language is uniform and foundation-directed, indicating institutional support for charitable purposes rather than open competition or application-based grantmaking.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$22.7B
Total Assets
$77.6B
Total Revenue
$10.2B
Total Expenses
$8.5B
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $7B and $7.5B, with a median of $7.3B.
25th Percentile
$7B
Median
$7.3B
75th Percentile
$7.5B
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
About 100% of grants go to recipients in WA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Leadership
WILLIAM H GATES III
TRUSTEE AND CEO
Accepts unsolicited proposals
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