MacKenzie Scott has given away more than $8 billion since her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos nearly two years ago. For perspective, that’s more than the entire GDP of some countries. For comparison, Bill and Melinda Gates have become the world’s biggest philanthropists, having given away around $50 billion over the past 27 years—at Scott’s pace, she’d hit that amount in 12 years.
Scott just announced that she and the philanthropy team she has assembled have donated $2.74 billion to 286 organizations. Though the donation amounts vary, that’s nearly $10 million per organization on average. (Had to do that math three times. “Billion” is a hard number to wrap our brains around.)
The money is the point, of course, but Scott wants the focus to stay on the organizations the money is funding and the work they are doing, not on the wealth that’s flowing from her to them.
In a post on Medium, she wrote:
“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating. This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth. Any wealth is a product of a collective effort that included them. The social structures that inflate wealth present obstacles to them. And despite those obstacles, they are providing solutions that benefit us all.
Putting large donors at the center of stories on social progress is a distortion of their role. Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change. In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others. Though we still have a lot to learn about how to act on these beliefs without contradicting and subverting them, we can begin by acknowledging that people working to build power from within communities are the agents of change. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower others.”
Scott wrote that the recipients of the funds were “high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked,” including schools educating underserved populations, organizations bridging religious divides through interfaith support and collaboration, arts and cultural institutions that often struggle for funds, organizations battling poverty and empowering women and girls, and initiatives focused on supporting community engagement.
#LBCC received a tremendously generous gift of $30 million from author/philanthropist @mackenziescott in recogniti… https://t.co/Mn751VnIaE
— LB City College (@LBCityCollege)
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Our team just found out that @MackenzieScott gave @GivingTuesday $7M to grow radical generosity.
#GivingTuesday https://t.co/ubTQJFk4Lp
— Kat Murphy Toms (@kat_murphytoms)
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Perhaps most notably, Scott gave the money without strings or instructions for how to use it, believing that these organizations know best how to use the funds. “These are people who have spent years successfully advancing humanitarian aims, often without knowing whether there will be any money in their bank accounts in two months,” she wrote. “What do we think they might do with more cash on hand than they expected? Buy needed supplies. Find new creative ways to help. Hire a few extra team members they know they can pay for the next five years. Buy chairs for them. Stop having to work every weekend. Get some sleep.”
Here’s the complete list of the organizations receiving Scott’s donations:
317 Main Community Music Center
ABFE: A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities
Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Fund
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC)
Arts Administrators of Color Network
Arts for Healing and Justice Network
Ashoka Innovators for the Public
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy
AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development)
Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)
· Communities Transforming Policing Fund
· Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund
· Racial Equity in Journalism Fund
· Racial Equity in Philanthropy Fund
· Racial Equity to Accelerate Change Fund
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
California State University Channel Islands
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Northridge
Center for Asian American Media
Center for Cultural Innovation
Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)
Center for Evaluation Innovation
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Child in Need Institute (CINI)
Chinatown Community Development Center
Chinese for Affirmative Action
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
Constellations Culture Change Fund
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy
Equitable Evaluation Initiative
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
Florida International University
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants COVID-19 Funds
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)
Institute for Transformative Technologies
Interaction Institute for Social Change
International African American Museum
Japanese American National Museum
Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership
Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures
National Center for Family Philanthropy
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
National Council of Nonprofits
National Museum of Mexican Art
Native Americans in Philanthropy
Native Arts & Cultures Foundation
New England Foundation for the Arts
Oregon Arts and Culture Recovery Fund
PEN America Writers’ Emergency Fund
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
San Francisco Community Health Center
Sanku — Project Healthy Children
Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO)
SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action)
Southwest Texas Junior College
The International Association of Blacks in Dance
The Village of Arts and Humanities
Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation
University of California, Merced
University of Illinois Chicago
University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation
Western States Arts Federation
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)
Congratulations to the recipients. Here’s hoping they make a marked difference in the lives of those they serve.