MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos, announced Tuesday that she has given away nearly $1.7 billion since last fall to 116 nonprofits, mostly to organization devoted to equity that are led by women, minorities, and LGBTQ people.
Scott signed the Giving Pledge last year; her ex-husband has not.
Scott donated an eye-popping $5.7 billion in 2020. It’s become clear that the impact of her donations extends well beyond the organizations that received the gifts.
Scott is the richest woman in America, according to Forbes, with a net worth of about $62 billion.
She made today’s announcement in a post on Medium, where she listed the amounts she’s given to nine causes. She also listed the 116 organizations that received the money. “Unless organization leadership requested otherwise, all commitments were paid up front and left unrestricted to provide them with maximum flexibility,” she wrote.
Scott noted that the groups she selected were largely run by the people the organization seeks to serve. “On this list, 91 percent of the racial-equity organizations are run by leaders of color, 100 percent of the LGBTQ+ equity organizations are run by LGBTQ+ leaders, and 83 percent of the gender-equity organizations are run by women, bringing lived experience to solutions for imbalanced social systems,” she wrote.
However, she didn’t specify how much each individual nonprofit received. The list of recipients range from small nonprofits with a handful of staff to large national charities like Crisis Text Line.
Howard University said it got a $40 million gift from Scott. Tuskegee University and Xavier University of Louisiana each reported $20 million gifts. All three universities said it was the largest gift from a single donor in their institutions’ history.
Xavier President Reynold Verret said the gift will send a strong message to other donors that investments in Xavier will produce big results.
“We’re very grateful to her for what she has done,” Verret said.
Howard President Wayne Frederick said in a news release that the money will be used “to help students graduate on time, retain our talented faculty, enhance our campus infrastructure, and support academic innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Tuskegee President Lily McNair said in a news release that the money will be used for “student scholarships, faculty and curriculum development, interdisciplinary programs, and campus infrastructure improvements.”
‘Heartbreak and Horror’
Scott wrote that she’s watched events in recent months with “a mixture of heartbreak and horror.” She added, “Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems; or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not only unjust but also unstable.”
Scott said that last fall she started consulting with a team of nonprofit advisers “with key representation from historically marginalized race, gender, and sexual identity groups” to help her identify grantees. That work “is ongoing and will last for years,” she wrote.
A media representative for Scott declined to comment for this story.
Liz London, a spokeswoman for the Bridgespan Group, acknowledge that Scott is working with the consulting firm but declined to provide further information: “We feel fortunate to be able to help her pursue her philanthropic vision. As is always the case, we do not discuss the work we do with clients.”
‘From the Sky’
Recipients of the grants described a tremendous sense of pride at being selected through a somewhat unusual process.
Jorge Valencia, executive director and CEO of the Point Foundation, one of the recipients, said his organization was contacted a few months ago by people doing diligence for a potential donor they initially declined to name. “A very generous gift” arrived about a week ago, Valencia said. He declined to say how much. Valencia said his organization had no connection to Scott, and there was no application process.
“It was a gift that just fell from the sky,” Valencia said.
The Point Foundation provides financial aid for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer college students. It has an annual budget of about $4 million.
With some donors diverting money to the upcoming elections, the gift from Scott arrived at a crucial moment, Valencia said.
He added, “To have somebody believe in you means a lot.”
Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN, another grant recipient, described a similar process — and feeling of satisfaction — at being chosen by a donor with no previous connection to her organization after a rigorous screening process.
“This was an absolutely invaluable, priceless vote of confident at a time of extreme uncertainty and urgent need,” Byard said.
GLSEN, with an annual budget of about $8 million helps K-12 LGBTQ students learn and grow without bullying and harassment.
Byard added that the funding provides " a deep jolt of confidence and renewed energy for some very difficult work ahead.”
Valencia and Byard declined to say how much their organizations received from Scott.
All grant recipients contacted for this article said the money is a one-time gift. “That was made very clear,” said Elizabeth Share, director of strategic relations for the Solutions Journalism Network, which received $5 million from Scott.
Here are the details Scott provided about her recent giving:
Causes
- Racial equity: $586.7 million
- LGBTQ+ equity: $46 million
- Gender equity: $133 million
- Economic mobility: $399.5 million
- Empathy & bridging divides: $55 million
- Functional democracy: $72 million
- Public health: $128.3 million
- Global development: $130 million
- Climate change: $125 million
Nonprofits
- A Call to Men
- ACEGID & Broad Institute — Sentinel
- Advancement Project
- All Our Kin
- American Indian Graduate Center
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC
- Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
- Black Girls CODE
- Blackbird
- Blue Meridian Partners
- BRAC — Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiatives
- Camelback Ventures
- Camfed
- Campaign Legal Center
- Capital Impact Partners
- Center for Election Innovation & Research
- Center for Policing Equity
- Centering Healthcare Institute
- Co-Impact
- Collective Future Fund
- College Track
- Common Cause Education Fund
- Community Change
- Crisis Text Line
- Echoing Green
- Educate Girls
- Encore.org
- END Fund — Deworming Innovation Fund
- Energy Foundation China
- Energy Foundation US
- Equality Can’t Wait Challenge
- European Climate Foundation
- Facing History and Ourselves
- Family Independence Initiative
- Fast Grants
- First Nations Development Institute
- Forward Together
- Fund for Trans Generations
- Futures Without Violence
- George W. Bush Presidential Center
- GirlTrek
- GiveDirectly — U.S. Response and Africa Response
- GLSEN
- Grameen America
- Grantmakers for Girls of Color
- Greater Good Science Center
- Groundswell Fund
- Hampton University
- Harlem Children’s Zone — Covid-19 Relief and Recovery
- Highlander Research and Education Center
- Hispanic Scholarship Fund
- Hope Enterprise Corporation
- Howard University
- Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
- Independent Sector
- Interfaith Youth Core
- International Trans Fund
- Jackie Robinson Foundation
- Lambda Legal
- LatinoJustice
- Leadership Conference Education Fund
- Living Goods + Last Mile Health — Covid-19 Response
- Local Initiatives Support Corporation
- Low Income Investment Fund
- Millennial Action Project
- Morehouse College
- Movement for Black Lives
- NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
- Narrative 4
- National Center for Lesbian Rights
- National Congress of American Indians
- National Domestic Workers Alliance
- National Urban League
- National Women’s Law Center
- Obama Foundation
- One Acre Fund
- One Fair Wage
- Opportunity Fund
- Othering and Belonging Institute
- Oweesta Corporation
- Partners in Health — StopCovid
- Pflag National
- Point Foundation
- PolicyLink
- Posse Foundation
- Potential Energy Coalition
- Project Echo — Covid-19 Response
- Rainn
- SAGE
- Seattle Foundation — COVID-19 Response Fund
- Share Our Strength / No Kid Hungry
- Sirum
- Solutions Journalism Network
- Southern Coalition for Social Justice
- Southerners on New Ground
- Spelman College
- State Infrastructure Fund
- State Voices
- StoryCorps
- The Nature Conservancy — Blue Bonds & US Climate Action
- The On Being Project
- The Opportunity Agenda
- The Trevor Project
- TheDream.US
- Thorn
- Thurgood Marshall College Fund
- Transgender Law Center
- Tuskegee University
- UNCF (United Negro College Fund)
- UnidosUS
- United Way of King County — Community Relief Fund
- Voter Engagement Fund
- W. Haywood Burns Institute
- With Honor
- World Central Kitchen — Oakland
- Xavier University of Louisiana
