What Does It Mean When You Get Two MacKenzie Scott Gifts? Recipients Aren’t Sure Either

MacKenzie Scott has given grants to more than 2,300 nonprofits. Thirteen of those groups have a special distinction: They have received more than one grant from her. It’s a tiny subset of her grant making — about half a percent — but it provides a window into some of her philanthropic priorities.

Many of those groups make grants to other nonprofits. Some of the gifts addressed crises like the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. There’s one environmental group, several organizations that work on poverty and health, and two grantees that give money directly to individuals. It’s a diverse mix.

Two themes run through Scott’s grant making, says Benjamin Soskis, a senior research associate at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute.

“One is we need to figure out ways to get as much money out the door as possible, so we’ll give to organizations that can absorb that money reliably and can regrant it,” he says. “Then there’s another mode of thinking, which is we need to give money to a different set of organizations that in the past haven’t been the kind of organizations that get big grants.”

‘Wedge Into the System’

Organizations that make grants to other nonprofits are well represented among the groups that have received multiple Scott gifts.

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Donors like Scott give to those groups because they can handle large contributions and have the subject-matter expertise to get funds to smaller, often community-based nonprofits. Regranters’ expertise and networks of nonprofit connections make them effective ways to get money to communities during a crisis. For example, Scott gave the Hawaii Community Foundation two gifts, one for Covid relief and another to help people recovering from the Maui wildfires.

Outright International received donations from Scott in 2021 and 2022 — the second for its Ukraine relief efforts. The group, which conducts research, advocates for legal and policy change, and provides grants to small charities around the world that work on LGBTQ rights issues, used the gifts to both bolster its own programs and make grants to others.

The organization used the first donation to expand its efforts to protect and uplift the most vulnerable LGBTQ people by accelerating legal and social change, including a program that connects and supports lesbian, bisexual, and queer women in the global south. It started a program to protect and expand the rights of LGBTQ people through legal and policy reform and expanded its support of trans and intersex activists.

Outright International, which has not disclosed the amounts it received from Scott, used its second grant to help fund groups supporting LGBTQ people in Ukraine and refugees in surrounding countries and to conduct research and advocacy work to ensure that LGBTQ people are not excluded by the humanitarian system there.

“LGBTQ people are often particularly vulnerable and disproportionately impacted by crises or conflict and often left behind by traditional humanitarian actors,” says Katie Hultquist, director of leadership giving at Outright International. “Ukraine is a good example of that. We’ve been working very closely, in partnership, and providing direct support to groups on the ground there that are trying to meet the needs of queer people. Her grant allowed us to do that.”

The Center for Disaster Philanthropy also received two gifts, one for $10 million in 2020 for its Covid-19 Response Fund, which raised a total of $45 million, and one for $3 million for aid to Ukraine in 2022. That fund totaled $15 million.

The group used the money for mental-health resiliency training for health care workers on five continents and to help LGBTQ and Roma groups in Ukraine, among other efforts. “We try to be a wedge into the system,” says Patricia McIlreavy, CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. “What is not being addressed, what is overlooked, what are the places where a pot of money can make a very big difference?”

Donor Collaboratives

Some of Scott’s giving to regranting groups has been to donor collaboratives like Blue Meridian, which received four contributions from 2019 to 2023. It has not disclosed the amount Scott gave. Co-Impact received donations in 2020 and 2021 that together totaled $125 million.

Photo by Bethanie Hines

Blue Meridian did not speak with the Chronicle. Co-Impact emailed a statement expressing gratitude for Scott’s support.

Donor collaboratives are an effective way to move large sums of money to other nonprofits, says Bradley Myles, senior adviser for innovation at Panorama Global, a nonprofit that has produced reports on Scott’s giving and hosts groups of Scott grantees so they can learn from one another. A report from Bridgespan found that these donor collaboratives could distribute $16 billion more than they do today if fundraising were not a constraint.

“They’re these underoptimized entities that so many other philanthropists could take advantage of,” he says. “I think what MacKenzie Scott is doing is she’s modeling that by giving to Blue Meridian, to Co-Impact, and the End Fund.”

Scott has also given multiple gifts to two groups that provide funds directly to individuals. GiveDirectly received four from 2020 to 2021 for a total of $125 million. UpTogether, which also makes grants to individuals, received $9 million in 2020 for Covid response and $40 million in 2021.

“These groups give direct cash transfers to people. That’s something she really believes in. And the research suggests it’s really effective,” says Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, which also received a Scott grant and is studying the impact of her giving. “She may have made multiple grants just because those are the only organizations doing direct giving in a big way.”

GiveDirectly declined to comment.

UpTogether, formerly known as the Family Independence Initiative, used some of its Scott money to invest in its technology and data analytics. It also created a position focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and has built partnerships with several state governments to further expand its reach.

“It’s a luxury to have a cushion of dollars,” says Jesús Gerena, CEO of UpTogether. “You can do this research and design or experiment in ways that could really help impact and leapfrog components of your mission. “

Luxury to Be Ambitious

In a handful of cases, Scott has made more than one donation to nonprofits that focus on running their own programs. She has awarded two each to the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Nature Conservancy, and BRAC, a humanitarian organization that works with some of the world’s poorest people.

BRAC received contributions both for the organization as a whole and for its Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative, an effort to lift people out of extreme poverty, which BRAC was expanding internationally. The money to support the graduation initiative came from Scott, but she gave through the TED Audacious Project along with other donors. Out of the $63 million in total BRAC received from the Audacious Project, $40 million came from Scott. It also received $25 million in 2022.

The first grant allowed the group to think more ambitiously and put teams in place to work with government partners in seven countries to expand its programs for the poorest people. It used the second gift to create an endowment that allows it to make long-term commitments to the communities it works with.

“We’ve been able to plan longer, think more ambitiously, and really, frankly, overhaul our entire approach for tackling global poverty,” Greg Chen, managing director of the BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative, says about the Audacious Project grant.

Harlem Children’s Zone did not respond to requests for comment, and the Nature Conservancy declined to comment.

Careful Communication

None of the groups that received multiple donations that spoke with the Chronicle expected the second gift, nor were they certain why they received it. Many thought it was clear that Scott wanted to support their group’s mission. Ultimately, as with much of Scott’s giving, the answer isn’t clear.

It wasn’t a matter of cultivation. The double grantees that spoke with the Chronicle had little communication with Scott’s advisers. Yield does not require grant reporting and doesn’t encourage much communication from recipient organizations. Several grantees talked about being very careful as they expressed their gratitude, acknowledged the gifts, and shared the work the donation made possible while still respecting Yield’s process.

BRAC

“I have on occasion sent an email. But it’s not asking for funds. It’s really just a quick reminder of the difference that they’re making,” says McIlreavy at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. “There’s a balance you have to play in terms of treating them with respect as a partner. We try and navigate that space as best we’re able.”

Gerena with UpTogether is similarly circumspect when it comes to communicating with Yield. But he hopes Scott will keep up with the kind of unorthodox philanthropy that has gotten so much attention and brought so much funding to so many smaller organizations.

It’ll be interesting to see what Scott and Yield Giving do going forward, he says. “I will continue to encourage them to be disruptive because I think it’s been really powerful.”