A review of Melinda Gates’ MasterClass on Impactful Giving

When I get into something, I want to learn about it from all angles. I want to understand the psychology of the thing and who created it. I’ll read books, watch YouTube videos, or talk to people about it. The bottom line here is: I turn the topic inside out.

And so I admire Melinda’s unrelenting approach to philanthropy because it is predicated on applying a rigorous research lens while placing trust in the people and organizations closest to the problem.

Melinda does not trade a data-driven approach for one that is more emotive. She is, after all, a computer scientist by training. Her approach to giving acknowledges the -isms that exist globally and looks for thoughtful ways to engage deeply with the problem areas while listening and working with the communities impacted.

I started to grow more interested in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2010. In my Research Design class in grad school, I was tasked with researching and designing methodology around a chosen topic. At that point in time, I was really interested in the connection between the school environment and its impact on student academic performance. I came across a two-year project that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was launching, testing multiple measures of teaching effectiveness and their impact on academic performance (the findings would later determine that teacher effectiveness is not likely the strongest factor for performance).

It then made me curious about how the Foundation approached philanthropy. While they were clear about their desire to be more hands-on and less risk-averse in their giving, they also appeared very insular - for more than a decade, the board was composed entirely of close family and friends (Bill and Melinda and Bill’s father, William Sr.), and Warren Buffett.

That has since changed as the foundation has expanded its board and announced a commitment to increase its payout by 50% to $9 billion by 2026. At the onset of their philanthropy, they weren’t concerned about rubber stamping projects; they wanted to apply a culture of learning that relied on research and on the feedback from the communities they were serving. And back then, you didn’t see this approach to philanthropy from well-known philanthropists very often.

Quick reminder: This article is not a critique of their philanthropy - it’s a review of my takeaways from Melinda’s Masterclass on Impactful Giving.

I grew more curious about Melinda French Gates in 2015 when she launched Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company focused on advancing social progress in the United States. They’ve invested in issue areas ranging from women in technology, caregiving, paid family and medical leave, and mental health for young people, just to name a few.

Her approach to philanthropy at the time was and continues to be honest, investigative, and open - all with an eye toward promoting the presence of women and people of color in underrepresented fields and reducing inequities that hinder the advancement of women globally. I suspect she folds much of who she is into how she practices her philanthropy.

Takeaways from Melinda’s Masterclass

The course is offered in seventeen videos that range from one minute to ten minutes. Melinda shares her personal experiences with philanthropy from the onset of her career in philanthropy to the present day.

1. Qualitative and quantitative data are critical to making decisions in giving

Traditional philanthropy that exists in institutional forms (giving from foundations to organizations or individuals) places more emphasis on identifying causes that can have a measurable impact. In other words, funders often prioritize giving money to projects or programs that can give easily quantifiable results. 

For example, if a small clinic wanted to appeal to a funder in order to scale their clinic, they can point to metrics like the number of community members treated for a certain health issue, the number of preventative visits performed by doctors, a decrease in the incidence of an illness, and so on.

The challenge in focusing on this approach is that it often discounts the role of programs or projects whose impact may not be so easy to quantify, or takes a long time to measure.

Let’s take a program that prepares young women for leadership roles. In order to appeal to funders, this organization might rely on a metric like the increased number of women who apply for and secure leadership roles. 

But translating the value of gender diversity in the workplace into numbers-only data doesn’t take into account other measures of impact, like successful changes in policy that impact families or an increase in profits (which is hard to link as the direct result of gender diversity).

While it’s harder to quantify topics that will hold more weight based on their impact on society at large, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from the existing research or listen to stories that tell us a whole lot more about the decisions we are about to make.

2. Philanthropy is extremely personal 

Philanthropy is extremely personal - there's no one right way to do it. In this masterclass, Melinda reminds viewers that they should start their giving journey by reflecting on their own life experiences and using that to identify issue areas that they are passionate about.

She offers a "think, test, do" framework for identifying causes that feel right to you and executing your giving strategy. This approach is all about finding what works for you as an individual, rather than following some prescribed formula.

If you're feeling lost or uncertain about where to give, take a cue from Melinda and make it personal. It's the best way to ensure that your philanthropy has a lasting and meaningful impact.

3. Risk-taking and flexibility will help you to find your voice in philanthropy

Giving can be simple but being a catalyst for sustainable change requires a little more effort.

The latter requires a willingness to try something new and a commitment to staying connected to the cause. Using quantitative and qualitative data to help you learn from your mistakes and pivot accordingly along the way is essential.

Melinda acknowledges the pain of failure that comes with embarking on your giving journey and shares personal anecdotes about the importance of not going in with a fixed mindset and believing that you will get things right the first time around.

As someone who has worked on both sides of those being funded and those providing the funding, I’ve seen how funders place a lot of pressure on organizations and the communities they support to get things right from the start. While some of this pressure is understandable (after all, there are lives and futures at risk) - a willingness from funders to be more open to the reality on the ground can help everyone learn and progress the cause much more effectively.

4. Do away with your ego in order to do good work 

Oh, how I wish this could ring more true in public-sector work! This is particularly hard to grasp in a Western culture that very much values independence and places “I” before “we”. 

Philanthropy in the United States often obscures the 'who' and the 'why'. While the person being served should be at the center of the work, oftentimes this gets lost by organizations in an effort to appeal to funders and reassure the public that they made the "right investment" in tackling said social problems.

Truly internalizing and putting aside one’s ego will require a lot of unlearning and even sharing some power that philanthropic institutions may not be willing to part with. If we invest in this kind of intentionality, then we can really do so much more and work with the communities we want to serve.

The one change this Masterclass needs

I appreciate how Melinda doesn’t intellectualize the practice of philanthropy. This isn’t a theoretical discussion about how to give or when and why - much to my delight, she even explains the different types of giving (e.g. local vs. global, trust-based giving vs. strategic) and underscores a fact that may be easy to forget: not all forms of giving are financial.

The partnership with Masterclass will distribute free memberships to eight organizations in the U.S. and abroad championing issues that focus on empowering young women. While this is admirable, I do wish this class could be more accessible to many who could benefit from these lessons and her experiences. 

One of the challenges in philanthropy, in general, is that the sector as a whole tends to be inaccessible to many. By increasing access to education and information, we can help to break down some of the barriers that prevent people from getting involved in philanthropy.

In the end, you don’t have to be Melinda Gates to practice or espouse what she shares. You can take a page from her book and start by simply sharing your experiences and perspective with others, and let those interactions shape your journey of giving.