MacKenzie Scott gives away another $2.7 billion to charity

MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s richest individuals, announced on Tuesday that she has donated nearly $2.8 billion to hundreds of organizations this year.

Scott in a post on Medium titled “Seeding by Ceding” shared that she believes “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,” she added in the Tuesday post. 

The billionaire noted that she, her husband, Dan Jewett, and other individuals “are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change.”  

Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said that she and administrators, advisers and others spent the first quarter of 2021 identifying nonprofit teams “working in areas that have been neglected.”

“The result was $2,739,000,000 in gifts to 286 high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked,” Scott wrote.

The billionaire noted that she wants to “de-emphasize privileged voices and cede focus to others,” touting the work of higher education institutions, organizations targeting discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, art and cultural institutions and more.

Some of the organizations that received donations include the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, several colleges and universities and hundreds of other charities and institutions.

“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,” Scott wrote.

This is not the first giving spree Scott has announced over the last year. In December, she shared that she donated more than $4 billion over the previous four months. In July 2020, she said she donated roughly $1.7 billion to nonprofit groups.