Editor's Letter

I have often thought how fortunate we Americans are that the robber barons of our Gilded Age, even while they amassed vast personal fortunes, nevertheless decided that part of their legacy should be philanthropic. Because industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller endowed libraries and schools at grand scale, it became understood that enriching oneself and one's family came with a responsibility to patronize the arts and other creative and intellectual institutions. That notion has persisted through generations. And although giving, even at a grand scale, cannot cancel out inequality, it's far better than no giving at all.

Last year at a breakfast with a handful of journalists, Melinda French Gates mentioned that she is often asked for advice on how to give. Having come up on the tidal wave of wealth creation in Silicon Valley and then funneling that wealth on an extraordinary level into the Gates Foundation, she's a pioneer and an expert, primed to counsel new members of the millionaire and billionaire clubs on what their legacies might look like outside the boardroom. As Keziah Weir reports, Melinda's own philanthropic work has undergone a seismic shift this year, as she left the foundation she and her ex-husband began in 2000 to strike out on her own, doubling her efforts on lifting up women and girls. I know from my own work as a director of the board of CARE, the global humanitarian organization, that money spent improving the lives of women and girls is the most effective path to improving lives in general, since they have the most untapped potential.

In this issue we spotlight a circle of influential women whom Melinda has mentored and supported in their desire to give back on multiple fronts—from Sara Blakely's focus on fostering entrepreneurship to Anne Wojcicki's championing of scientists to Tsitsi Masiyiwa's commitment to education, food security, and disaster preparedness. Keziah also spoke with Melinda at length about her renewed philanthropic objectives, the experiences of sexism that helped inform her point of view, and her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

ON THAT NOTE, this is the first editor's letter I'm writing since Harris stepped up and into the presidential race, energizing the Democratic Party and changing the course of the election. The unprecedented shake-up has made for an electric summer and fall in our newsroom as we follow the candidates and their Diet Mountain Dew-loving vice presidential picks on the road to November 5.1 hope you're following our coverage on VF.com—from convention reporting to campaign analysis to meme and merch scorecards (is Tim Walz a Chappell Roan stan?)—and listening to our weekly politics podcast, Inside the Hive. We are committed to keeping you up-to-date through Election Day and beyond, in the way only Vanity Fair can.

RADHIKA JONES

Editor in Chief