Change happens from the bottom up, and also the top down.. ", MacKenzie Scott Has Donated More Than $4 Billion In Last 4 Months. MacKenzie Scott has revolutionized philanthropy and the civil society and development sector by rapidly awarding more large grants faster than any other philanthropist: almost 1,600 grants totaling more than $14 billion since 2020. 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She gave surprise gifts totaling $410 million to historically Black colleges and universities in December 2020 alone, adding to the nearly $6 billion she gave away last year. Ms. McWhorter was not the only recipient who cried. MacKenzie Scott has unveiled a website to provide more transparency around her philanthropic efforts. In 2020, a year of incredible need, Ms. Scott gave away nearly $6 billion to 500 organizations. Editor's note: Updated on Feb. 22, 2022 to include a donation to National 4-H Council. They divorced in mid-2019 and she received 25% of his Amazon stake. Hire a few extra team members they know they can pay for the next five years. Yet even as she disbursed her billions, Ms. Scott expressed some ambivalence about her fortune and the source of it, writing in a blog post that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands.. The first email literally got stuck in my junk mail.. The website dropped at the end of a year in which Scott became more famous than ever, despite her shying from the spotlight, and not always for her donations. In her latest round of donations, Ms. Scott did not list the amount she gave each organization, but her blog post included a list of those receiving funds. Scotts gifts come in the form of unrestricted grants, meaning that nonprofits can spend the money however they want rather than on particular programs. Rodriguez is already putting the funds to work: $8 million will be redistributed, she says, to support artists of color in the groups network. Morgan State University, a historically Black public college in Baltimore that traces its roots to the year 1867, has always struggled financially. That mentality of trust is what we need in philanthropy, said Katie Carter, chief executive of the Pride Foundation in Seattle, an L.G.B.T.Q.+ charity that received a $3 million donation. In ablog post, Scott whose divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly left her with Amazon stock valued at more than $35 billion and whotweetedon Tuesday that she would begin using her middle name as her last name wrote that she had been working with nonprofit advisors from historically marginalized race, gender, and sexual identity groups to help identify and evaluate potential grantees. Calling the donations to individual organizations "relatively large," Scott described the new cash as a means to do more good work with less financial stress. What do we think they might do with more cash on hand than they expected? In the course of a few months, Ms. Scott has turned traditional philanthropy on its head. MacKenzie Scott is a private citizen, but she is playing a public role, said Maribel Morey, founding executive director of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences. After divorcing the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, she signed the Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to give away the bulk of her share of the Amazon fortune. Anyone can read what you share. Unable to update subscription. Mackenzie Investments Charitable Foundation grants in 2018: $801,000 35 charities received grants in 2018 Largest grant to a partner charity in 2018: $50,000 Our Partner Charities The Foundation focuses on giving high-impact grants to charities across the country, with a special focus on organizations that help children and youth at risk. The National Council on Aging got $8 million, while mental health nonprofit the Jed Foundation got $15 million. She just doesnt seem to be tuned in to that kind of stuff at all, Mr. Callahan said. All of this adds up, as 10 Scott recipients told Forbes, to a new way of philanthropyand their hope that other big donors will follow Scotts lead. The business was teetering on the brink. The president of the University of Central Florida said his institution will receive $40 million the largest donation in the university's history. Women-led, Black women-led organizations tend to be at the very bottom of the pile for philanthropists, Ms. McWhorter said. A base of community and financial support. A significant amount was granted to organisations focused on issues of equity, with noteworthy support to leaders of colour and those identifying as LGBTQIA+. To subscribe, select any of the newsletters listed below. These are the kinds of stories Scotts grant was able to propel, says Urrutia. A gift like this for a nonprofit is equivalent to a billion dollars, Accion chief executive Luz Urrutia told Forbes. Understanding of and ability to describe the relationship between the proposed project and other services, and service providers within the community. My hope is that MacKenzies style of giving inspires the philanthropic sector, and inspires other donors to give in a way that supports bold, big visions, she added. Bezos is following in the footsteps of other famous billionaires who turned their focus toward philanthropy after retiring from the day-to-day of running a business. Scott also won praise from philanthropy experts for the way she donated her money: without strings attached. Mr. Bezos, the richest man in the world, has made big charitable commitments but not made philanthropy a top priority. She then dampens any of our hopes that she might reconsider all those press interview requests: In order to cede focus to the organizations were supporting, we choose not to participate in events or media stories.. Where Scott grant recipients chose to spend their unrestricted grants offers clues about the areas of global development that have historically been underfunded. Jewett joined Scott in signing the Giving Pledge, a commitment by wealthy individuals to give away a majority of their money. It also distinguished her from her former husband, the richest man in the world. The university will use the funds to meet needs in four areas, including campus infrastructure improvement projects, a new faculty development plan, a program focused on social innovation and entrepreneurship, and one of its signature retention programs, the Graduation & Retention Access to Continued Excellence (GRACE) Grant. We don't have a lot of time. People-centered measures for recruitment and staff wellness, training, and retention. Documenting their founding principles and values. Intentionally communicating about evolving organizational norms in both directions between leadership and staff. Creating space for fostering staff agency, risk-taking and ideas generation among both the board of directors and staff. Scott prefers simply to announce via blog post the organizations she has chosen for her next multibillion-dollar giveaway. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. MacKenzie. If you have any questions about the Foundation or our grant process, email us below for a quick response. Mr. Bezos has made some big charitable commitments but has not made philanthropy a top priority. Unable to update subscription. "Bezos' support comes at a critical moment as we broaden and deepen our efforts to support LGBTQ students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color and LGBTQ students who are grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. This system forces them to constantly fundraise and use a patchwork approach to finance their missions, rather than letting them focus on accomplishing those missions. She noted that she had made unsolicited and unexpected gifts given with full trust and no strings attached. Such strings are a mainstay of modern philanthropy: onerous grant proposals and nerve-racking site visits, followed by reports on the variety of performance benchmarks that charities are required to meet to keep the money flowing. At the time, her portion of the settlement, some 4 percent of Amazon shares, was valued at around $36 billion. Experts on philanthropy said Ms. Scotts nearly $6 billion in gifts might be among the most ever handed out directly to charities in a single year by a living donor (as opposed to a billionaire making a huge one-time gift to a foundation to be disbursed over decades). Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has announced details of the more than $3.86 billion in gifts she has awarded since June of 2021. Over the course of 2020, MacKenzie Scott announced grants totaling almost $6 billion. Conference expenses, memberships, tickets to events or informational visits by experts or recognized speakers. Shes not putting herself in the drivers seat., MacKenzie Scott Gives Away Another $2.74 Billion Even as Her Wealth Grows, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html. Additionally, the funds were used to invest in systems that would outlast the founding leaders and teams. In her divorce from Bezos, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon. Usually you dont have very large philanthropists wandering the landscape looking to drop millions of dollars very quietly into organizations that they care about, said Adam Zimmerman, president and chief executive of Craft3, which gives loans to small businesses in Oregon and Washington and which received a $10 million gift from Ms. Scott. Some interactive form features may not be fully supported when using Google Chrome. The largest donation, $133.5 million, went to Communities in Schools, a non-profit that helps keep at-risk children in schools. Notably, Scott didnt publicly announce these donations herself, as she has done in the past. Hes stepping down as Amazon CEO later this year and says he plans to focus on other passions, including the Bezos Earth Fund, the Day 1 Fund, and The Washington Post. Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated almost $2 billion to more than 300 organizations in the last seven months, she said in a Medium post Monday. Her main expression of that critique is giving away so much money so quickly, and supporting so many bottom-up organizations, Mr. Callahan said. Since Ms. Scott does not have a foundation, at least some of her contributions are made through a donor-advised fund, a controversial vehicle that facilitates some charitable donations. Its really critical for any philanthropist to address the inequities of how their wealth was created, she said. (Editor's note: The amount of money transferred into Lehman College's endowment has been changed based on updated information provided by the college.) Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox daily. We have to quantum leap., This is a BETA experience. As you probably know, DAFs are not public entities so there's no application process, unless the donor decides to make the process public, which Ms. Scott has not chosen to do. 26 Feb Feb Two groups focusing on reproductive rights, the Guttmacher Institute and the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity, received $15 million and $25 million respectively. As she has before, Ms. Scott also included a literary reference, this time from the Sufi poet Rumi. In her post on Medium, she explained that her team's focus, which includes new areas, has been "to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds." Please do not submit any medical/patient information or other private information through this form. Long Beach City College, in California, thanked Scott for $30 million also the single largest donation in its history. General operating support for organizations. She was behind the wheel when she and Mr. Bezos drove to Seattle to start an online bookstore named after a Brazilian river. All Rights Reserved. Where Scott grant recipients chose to spend their unrestricted grants offers clues about the areas of global development that have historically been underfunded.. If he needs some pointers on how to have a meaningful impact with his gigantic fortune, he could do a lot worse than to take a few tips from his ex. Eventually. The surprising part was the unrestricted . The article also notes that Bezos and Scott tend to differ in how they donate their money. Though she has donated more than $8 billion over the past 11 months, primarily through direct gifts to nonprofits, today she is richer than ever, worth some $60 billion, according to Forbes. Editor's note: Updated on Feb. 28, 2022 to include a donation to the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife. Feasibility studies for capital campaigns. For the third time in less than a year, MacKenzie Scott has announced a multibillion-dollar round of grants. Another education nonprofit, Leading Educators, got $10 million to provide professional development for teachers. As one organization put it, "We should be building local organizations because they will be there longer than us and will have more credibility." Please Note: We are NOT MacKenzie Scott or Dan Jewett. please try again later. All ten nonprofit leaders Forbes spoke with say the unrestricted and ultimately more trusting nature of Scotts philanthropy is the exception, not the norm in their world. If Ms. Scott was making her donations through a foundation, she would be required to publicly disclose the amounts and recipients of all gifts. 2023 Fortune Media IP Limited. "Though this work is ongoing and will last for years," she wrote, "I'm posting an update today because my own reflection after recent events revealed a dividend of privilege I'd been overlooking: the attention I can call to organizations and leaders driving change.". Now, for the third time in under a year, Ms. Scott has announced a new round of grants, worth a combined $2.74 billion, demonstrating that her dedication to rapidly disbursing her fortune has not abated. Morgan could do with it as it saw fit. In a December Medium post, Scott said she would not reveal the latest recipients of her donations, arguing that the media focuses too much on her and not on the groups she gives money to. Its no secret MacKenzie Scott has committed some stunning acts of philanthropy of late. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. were made through a Fidelity donor-advised fund. Whereas multibillion foundations like Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have fancy headquarters, Ms. Scotts operation has no known address or even website. In December 2021, Scott briefly tried to withdraw even further from the limelight, and announced that she would let her recipients announce her gifts themselves. Her net worth, estimated at $36.1 billion in October 2019, has increased by some $23 billion since then. Instead, at least some of her donations including the gift to the Chicago Y.W.C.A. MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is shown here in 2018. Ms. Scott has not given a media interview recently, and maintains a close circle of friends and advisers. please try again later. Scotts June 15 post was the most detailed explanation of her philanthropic philosophy to date (attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change) and gently chided the news media for paying more attention to her wealth than to the organizations receiving money. Additionally, the National 4-H Council, an agriculturally focused youth organization, received $50 million. Favianna Rodriguez, who received $11 million from Scott, says Scott's giving is a redistribution of wealth. The money hit the street, he says. / Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox daily. Yield Givings website doesnt include any sort of contact information, and a page on Inquiries politely discourages what must be a deluge of informal pitches from anyone who knows anyone who knows Scott. She doesn't appear to have a website. On July 28, 2020, MacKenzie Scott shocked the philanthropic community by donating USD 1.7 billion to 116 nonprofits around the world. Instead of traditional in-person corporate events, The Red Door began to provide food for virtual conferences by making at-home deliveries to attendees in the Bay Area. Two previous Accion loans allowed Free to expand her Oakland, California catering business, The Red Door, from a couple of employees and a van in 2011 to dozens of employees and a 5,000 square foot kitchen before the pandemic. You may request printed copies of these forms by contacting Client Relations at 18003870614 or at service@mackenzieinvestments.com. Editor's note: Updated on Feb. 15, 2022 to include a donation to Leading Educators. $15M MacKenzie Scott grant helps vision sector out of a blind spot, As MacKenzie Scott donates $3.9B, one grantee expresses ambivalence, Global nonprofits among grantees in MacKenzie Scott's $2.7B donation. Little is known about how Ms. Scott selects her grantees, and there is no formal method for groups to apply for funds. The university said Scott and Jewett "were drawn to UTSA because of the university's strong commitment to create pathways to success for students from communities with significant educational attainment and income disparities" as well is its commitment to serving Latino students. For example, at national organizations with many affiliates across the country, she has funded some affiliates but not otherswithout asking those nonprofits for inputoccasionally creating internal difficulties and confusion for her recipients.

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