Action for Women's Health

Action for Women's Health

Funds organizations worldwide improving women’s health through integrated mental and physical wellbeing initiatives.

Action for Women's Health was a $250 million global open-call grant competition launched by Pivotal Philanthropies — a foundation associated with Melinda French Gates — in partnership with Lever for Change, a subsidiary of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that specialises in large-scale challenge competitions. The call invited nonprofit and research organisations worldwide to submit proposals addressing women's mental and physical health, making it one of the largest single-theme philanthropic competitions focused on women's health in recent history. Applications were submitted through the Lever for Change platform, which manages competitive scoring, due diligence, and awardee selection for high-dollar open challenges.

Eligible applicants included nonprofits, NGOs, universities, and research institutions globally; no country restrictions were cited. For-profit organisations were not eligible as lead applicants, consistent with Lever for Change's standard challenge structure. Individual award amounts within the $250 million pool were determined through the competitive scoring process rather than set in advance. Awardees were announced by end of 2025 per publicly available coverage of the programme. No future cycle of Action for Women's Health has been announced as of June 2026.

The Lever for Change challenge model scores applicants on measurable impact potential, organisational capacity, approach rigor, and equity of design. Competing organisations in prior Lever for Change challenges have typically strengthened applications by quantifying the population to be reached, naming delivery partnerships in target geographies, and documenting prior programme outcomes with independent evaluation evidence. The 2024 cycle is closed; organisations interested in Pivotal's future funding directions should monitor Pivotal Philanthropies and Lever for Change announcements for new challenge launches.