MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates donate $40 million to gender equality projects

Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scott,one of the world's wealthiest women, have announceda new round of large charitable donations totaling $40million foradvancing the power and influence ofwomen over the next decade.

The powerful philanthropic pairing will donate the entire amount to the winners of the 'Equality Can't Wait Challenge', whichis the first competition centered on gender equality in the United Stateswith an award of this magnitude.

"The overwhelming response to the Challenge proves there's no shortage of transformational ideas about how to accelerate progress for women and girls," saidMelinda French Gates, founder of Pivotal Ventures.

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"The next step is to make sure those game-changing ideas get the support they need to become fully realized and improve people's lives. We can break the patterns of history and advance gender equality, but we must commit to lifting up organizations, like the ones receiving awards today, that are ready to lift up women and girls," she added.

The four awardees will beselected following a multi-phase process. Their ideas center on the voices of women who have been most impacted by gender inequity,focus on action and leverage the inherent strengths and power of women to tackle the barriers they face today.

French Gates and Scott, who were formerly married to Seattle-based tech founders Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, respectively, are famous for theirlarge charitable donations.

Melinda Gatesisthe co-chair of The Gates Foundation thatgives away roughly $5 billion each year in areas like global public health and development.

Meanwhile,MacKenzieScott, who quickly gave away an estimated $6 billion after her divorced from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019 and is now a powerful independent philanthropist in her own right.

(With inputs from agencies)