Philanthropic funding
By Impact Global Health 29 January 2025
Insights
A sharp rebound in funding from the Gates Foundation took philanthropic funding to its highest level in well over a decade.
Philanthropic funding rebounded by $125m (16%) after two years of decline. This growth lifted 2023 funding to $929m, just above its 2020 total and, narrowly, its highest level since 2008.
Essentially all of this increase ($125m, 99%) was thanks to an increase in funding from the Gates Foundation – the top philanthropic funder in 2023 and every other year – whose funding was up almost a fifth. This comes after three consecutive years of reduced funding from the Gates Foundation, reversing all of the decline and leaving 2023 funding $50m higher than when the decline began. This was the most funding provided by the Gates Foundation since 2009 and the third-highest total on record, following a sharp increase in its TB R&D funding (up $61m, 38%) and smaller rises in its malaria and multi-disease funding.
The only other substantial increase was from Spain’s Fundacio La Caixa – now the third largest philanthropic funder – which saw its funding jump by $8m (up 145%), more than double its previous high. Fundacio La Caixa’s spending again came mostly via untied core funding contributions to IS Global, which more than doubled to $11m, along with $1.0m in new malaria diagnostics funding to Vall d'Hebron Research Institute.
Contributions from Wellcome – as always, the second largest philanthropic funder – were down just slightly (by $4.9m, -4.3%), declining for the third year running and leaving them 26% below their 2020 peak. Funding from Open Philanthropy fell by a similar amount (down $4.7m), though this represented a much larger proportional reduction (-63%). Like Wellcome’s, Open Philanthropy’s neglected disease R&D funding peaked in 2020 and has fallen every year since. It has now dropped by more than 90%, though preliminary data for 2024 and beyond suggests a significant rebound in Open Philanthropy’s neglected disease funding.
The short and long-term declines in both Wellcome and Open Philanthropy’s funding reflect declines across a number of disease areas, especially their multi-disease funding. One area that has experienced meaningful growth from both organisations is TB, with Wellcome providing a one-off increase in its funding of nearly $12m (156%) in 2023 and Open Philanthropy by $1.3m, a more than tenfold increase.
The rise in Gates funding, along with the declines from Welcome and Open Philanthropy, had driven a big increase in the share of philanthropic funding provided by the Gates Foundation, which rose to 83% in 2023, its highest level since 2015, when Open Philanthropy did not yet exist.
Outside the top few contributors, the number and make-up of philanthropic funders remained relatively consistent. However, 2023 did see almost $2m in funding from the UK’s LifeArc, a new survey participant this year.
Most of the increase in philanthropic funding was invested in the ‘big three’ diseases – TB, malaria and HIV – and in platform technologies. The single biggest increase was in funding for tuberculosis (up $72m, 41%, mostly for vaccines), mostly due to the increased investment from the Gates Foundation and, to a lesser extent, Wellcome. Much of this increase was directed to the Gates MRI’s Phase II clinical trial of the M72 vaccine candidate.
Philanthropic non-disease-specific funding was up by $21m, most of which was for platform technologies. Malaria funding was up $24m, and HIV by $10m – all mostly thanks to the Gates Foundation.
Over half of philanthropic funding went to academic & other research institutes ($506m, 54%), followed by funding to PDPs ($158m), which increased by $11m after four years of decline. This still leaves philanthropic funding to PDPs more than a third lower than when the most recent decline began in 2018 and over 70% below its 2008 peak. Philanthropic funding to small pharmaceutical companies rose by $44m (40%) to a record $152m – more than six times their contributions to big pharma.
Table 4. Top philanthropic R&D funders 2023
