MacKenzie Scott Has Quietly Given Away Over $17B Since 2020: Her Latest Donations
It’s giving season for MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos. Despite a lack of public announcements of new grants on her charitable website Yield Giving, the philanthropist has spent the past few months quietly donating more than $300 million to at least 14 different organizations.
The gifts, which largely benefit nonprofits working towards affordable housing and financial equity, range from $65 million to $1.5 million and have been doled out by Scott since September. They add to the more than $17.3 billion Scott has already given since 2020 to more than 2,300 different nonprofits. The philanthropist’s latest public batch of donations took place in March, when she awarded $640 million to 361 nonprofits as part of an open call administered through Lever for Change, an organization hosting philanthropic challenges.
Scott’s newest grants largely benefit community development organizations like the New York-based Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which received $65 million this month, the largest grant in the organization’s 45-year history. The donation built upon a previous $40 million grant from Scott four years ago. “This remarkable funding is an investment not just in our capacity to support affordable housing, economic development, health, safety and jobs, but also in the well-being of the thousands of communities where we work every day,” said Michael Pugh, LISC’s CEO, in a statement.
Besides other housing-focused grantees like Enterprise Community Partners and the Corporation for Supportive Housing, which received $65 million and $40 million, respectively, Scott has also funneled her fortune into organizations using finance to bolster equity among local communities.
The Brunswick, Maine-based Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), for example, received $15 million. The Atlanta, Ga.-based Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs got $10 million. “We are grateful for Ms. Scott’s ongoing commitment to the Community Development Finance sector as a means to build economic agency and resilience, particularly for people and communities with low incomes,” said Keith Bission, president of CEI, in a statement.
Other grants went to the likes of the Mni Sota Fund, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn. and provides capital and business services to Native families. Two other Minnesota-based organizations, Propel Nonprofits and the Entrepreneur Fund, also benefited from Scott’s recent charitable wave through grants of $8 million and $9 million each.
Here’s a closer look at some of the donations Scott has made in the past few months:
- $65 million to Local Initiatives Support Corporation, based in New York, N.Y.
- $65 million to Enterprise Community Partners, based in Columbia, Md.
- $40 million to Corporation for Supportive Housing, based in New York, N.Y.
- $30 million to Housing Trust Silicon Valley, based in San Jose, Calif.
- $22 million to Nonprofit Finance Fund, based in New York, N.Y.
- $15 million to Coastal Enterprises, Inc., based in Brunswick, Maine
- $15 million to Craft3, based in Ilwaco, Wash.
- $15 million to Community Vision, based in San Francisco, Calif.
- $12 million to PeopleFund, based in Austin, Texas
- $10 million to Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, based in Atlanta, Ga.
- $9 million to Entrepreneur Fund, based in Duluth, Minn.
- $8 million to Propel Nonprofits, based in Minneapolis, Minn.
- $3 million to Wind River Development Fund, based in Fort Washakie, Wyo.
- $1.5 million to Mni Sota Fund, based in Minneapolis, Minn.
Are more gifts to come?
Known for her trust-based approach, Scott typically gives out large, unrestricted gifts without specifying how they must be used. She currently has an estimated net worth of $28 billion, with much of her fortune stemming from the 4 percent Amazon stake she received after divorcing Bezos in 2019.
Scott has already offloaded more than half of these shares in the past five years to bolster her philanthropic mission. In a sign that more charitable gifts are likely on their way, Scott in September reportedly sold more than 45 million Amazon shares valued at more than $8 billion.