Scott targets organizations working to advance the opportunities of people in underserved communities.
An Instagram post by Forbes says: “MacKenzie Scott, one of the wealthiest women in the world following her divorce from Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, launched a website revealing the process behind how she chooses which groups to donate her billions. It also outlines how organizations will soon be able to apply for funding.
Scott targets “organizations working to advance the opportunities of people in underserved communities,” the site says, listing 53 different focus areas Scott has already contributed toward, including reproductive health, youth development and literary and performing arts.
A report by Fortune states: “Megadonor and novelist MacKenzie Scott announced almost $2 billion in donations to 343 organizations in a short blog post Monday, emphasizing her interest in supporting people from underserved communities.
In her first post in nearly eight months, Scott showcased her donations to numerous funds as a “great resource” for giving. “They pool donations and spread them across a diverse group of smaller organizations working toward a common cause,” she wrote. “The funds we picked look for teams with lived experience in the issues they’re addressing.”
“Scott also repeated a promise first made in December last year to release a database of the organizations to which she’s donated.”
“Her list of donations includes several that have been previously announced, including $85 million to the Girl Scouts of the USA last month, $39 million to Junior Achievement USA in August, and $123 million to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in May. In Monday’s announcement, no donation amounts were listed.
The article also writes that “the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Scott vaulted to philanthropic fame in 2019 when she pledged to give away the majority of her wealth and then dropped $5.8 billion in donations by the end of 2020.
The announcement Monday brought the amount she’s said she’s given to around $14 billion to some 1,500 organizations.”
Mackenzie Scott launched a website revealing the process behind how she chooses which groups to donate her billions, and outlining how organizations will soon be able to apply for funding. https://t.co/FrStvtiKWH
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 15, 2022
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According to Forbes‘ profile listing: “MacKenzie Scott is a philanthropist, author and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to whom she was married for 25 years. As part of their 2019 divorce, she received a 25% stake in the online retailer.
In May 2019, shortly after she announced the terms of the divorce on Twitter, she signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of her wealth over the course of her lifetime.
Between July 2020 and November 2022, Scott has details how she’s given away $14.4 billion to nearly 1,600 nonprofits.
Scott employs a “no strings attached” style of giving, wherein the nonprofits to which she donates have full control over how to best deploy the new funds.
Scott, who has published two novels, was a student of author Toni Morrison at Princeton and worked as a research assistant for her.” The same profile states that Scott’s real time net worth as of December 16, 2022 is $26.2 billion.
In a recent Medium post, Scott shares: “Over the last seven months, with the help of my team, I gave $1,990,800,000 to 343 organizations supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities. Of special note is that many of the organizations are funds. For anyone similarly interested in supporting the leadership of people from the communities they’re assisting, funds are a great resource. They pool donations and spread them across a diverse group of smaller organizations working toward a common cause. The funds we picked look for teams with lived experience in the issues they’re addressing, as we did when selecting the other non-profits in this giving cycle, and the 1,200+ recipients before them, many of which are also funds. You can learn more about any of them in the database we’ll be releasing soon, with information supplied by their own teams, and mission statements in their own words.
I recently learned a saying used in disability communities: “Nothing about us without us.” For me, it’s another beautiful and powerful reminder. I needn’t ask those I care about what to say to them, or what to do for them. I can share what I have with them to stand behind them as they speak and act for themselves.”
Photo by Elena Seibert via Instagram @mackensiescott2020.
