Only 2% of charitable giving goes to women. Can Melinda French Gates change that?

For most of her adult life, Melinda French Gates has helped control vast amounts of money — and wielded the resulting power. But even by billionaire philanthropist standards, she’s having a breakout year.

In May, three years after her divorce from Bill Gates, French Gates resigned from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — taking $12.5 billion with her. Her departure, after a quarter century spent helping to build the foundation into the country’s largest charity, sent shock waves through the world of big philanthropy.

But now that French Gates gets to make all of her own decisions, she’s building up an even bigger profile in philanthropy — as well as government policy and U.S. politics. She’s spending $1 billion of her money, and leveraging her ever-growing celebrity, to call more attention to a cause she has long championed: The systemic problems facing women and girls, and the persistent lack of funding to fix them.

“This is a hole that has existed for a long time. And by putting my resources there, and my voice … I think I can shine a light,” French Gates told NPR in an interview this week.

On Wednesday, French Gates is officially launching an “open call” for nonprofits to apply for grants from her Pivotal organization. The main requirement is that those applying for her funds should be addressing issues relating to women’s mental and physical health.

The aim, Pivotal and its partners say, is to identify nonprofits working around the country and the world — especially those who wouldn’t normally cross French Gates’ path or be invited to apply for her money.

“We hope to find organizations all over the world that are have been working on women's health issues — probably below the radar, quietly — and call attention