Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $16 billion to nonprofits since 2019. Her gifts come with no strings attached, free of onerous reporting requirements and programmatic requests. While Scott is not without her critics, her approach and the vast amounts she gives away have sent shock waves through the philanthropic world.

Meanwhile, after more than two decades of grantmaking, Melinda French Gates resigned as co-chair of the Gates Foundation in June, departing with $12.5 billion to give away on her own. Already she has pledged $1 billion to fund gender equity work worldwide.

Philanthropy watchers are eagerly waiting to see whether French Gates will flip the script even more than Scott already has — and how together these two megadonors may transform philanthropy.

To explore this question and more, we examined the impact and influence of Scott and French Gates, how their approaches align and differ, and discussed what we know about their giving philosophies and priorities.