MacKenzie Scott has made her biggest publicly announced gift, handing out $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its U.S. affiliates, the charity announced Tuesday. This latest gift follows $281 million she gave last week to the Boys & Girls Clubs America and 62 of its local chapters around the country.
Habitat for Humanity officials said in a news release that they plan to use the gift to tackle the global housing crisis and advocate for what it says are needed systemwide changes to increase fair access to low-cost housing for everyone.
“With this donation, Habitat is well positioned to meaningfully advocate for the systemic and societal changes needed to improve equitable access to affordable housing,” Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat, said in a news release.
Although Scott declined to say how much money she contributed in her last round of giving, which she announced in December, some of the groups have disclosed that information.
More Than $9 Billion Donated
Her latest gift pushes Scott’s overall giving to well over $9 billion in two years. Out of the more than 800 charities that have received gifts from Scott since 2020, about 260 have publicized them, totaling more than $4.3 billion. That means more than half of Scott’s overall giving since 2020 has not been publicized.
This contribution is the latest in a series of donations Scott has made to large national nonprofits that have dozens or more local chapters scattered throughout the country providing services to people in marginalized or low-income areas. Giving to national charity networks is one way Scott’s philanthropy has had a ripple effect in the nonprofit world.
Of the total, Habitat’s international office in Atlanta has received $25 million and will use the unrestricted money over several years to increase the supply of housing and expand its Cost of Home campaign, an effort to push for new legislation so millions more people can get affordable housing. The charity also plans to create an effort to increase Black homeownership in the United States. The program will launch this summer.
“This gift gives us the opportunity to increase and improve equity in our work, policies, practices, and programs throughout our organization, our affiliated network, but especially in the communities with which we partner,” Natosha Reid Rice, Habitat’s chief global diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, said in a news release. “We look forward to bringing diverse groups of people together to focus on the ways we can address systemic racism and injustices in the housing sector that continue to limit access and harm people of color.”
Habitat is directing some of Scott’s gift toward advancing its research and measurement efforts that identify smart ways to preserve home affordability and create better housing programs and to analyze how the charity’s programs help individuals and families.
In addition, the money will back the nonprofit’s tithe program, through which the charity’s U.S. affiliates are expected to contribute a portion of their unrestricted revenue each year to Habitat’s global ministry. The Tithe International Disasters Fund has already committed $200,000 for Habitat’s initial response to refugees fleeing Ukraine.
To see all of Scott’s publicized donations and to learn about big contributions from other donors, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which we update regularly.
