Washington · Nonprofit
GATES FOUNDATION
GATES FOUNDATION (Washington) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,246,810 to it, the largest being NEW VENTURE FUND ($15,802,170). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $8.1B
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $72.7B
What Gates Foundation does
Programs
Global programs - the foundation works with grantees and partner organizations to address critical health and development priorities - from infectious disease to agricultural development and financial services - to benefit the world's poorest people. The foundation invests in advances in research and development as well as innovative approaches to delivering interventions to solve some of the challenges that prevent people in the poorest countries from thriving.
$605,824,435 spentUs programs - in the united states, the primary focus is on ensuring that all students have an opportunity to earn a degree or credential that prepares them for a successful career and life. The program seeks to increase access to better information and tools needed to tackle barriers to opportunity and to develop economic mobility strategies at the community, state and national levels, particularly in washington state, where the gates family has lived for generations and where the foundation is based.
$109,735,142 spentOther charitable programs - the foundation's other charitable activities include an array of initiatives such as its support of local community organizations and its maintenance of an interactive discovery center that connects visitors to the work of the foundation.
$45,777,378 spent
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $55.0B to $68.9B (+25%).
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Mark Suzman
Chief executive officer, board member
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $5k → $1k.
5 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 99% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $31.3B from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Gates Foundation Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money GATES FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of GATES FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
GATES FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 92% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund GATES FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 88% · 2018 95% · 2019 97% · 2020 100% · 2021 63% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
0% of GATES FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 17% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
99% of GATES FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $255k that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 13 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
GATES FOUNDATION's revenue grew 49% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 153 philanthropy nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Organizations like GATES FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GATES FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds GATES FOUNDATION?
- GATES FOUNDATION (Washington) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,246,810 to it, the largest being NEW VENTURE FUND ($15,802,170). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GATES FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $17,246,810 in grants to GATES FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GATES FOUNDATION?
- NEW VENTURE FUND is the largest funder on record, with $15,802,170 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GATES FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 23 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing