MacKenzie Scott has added to her philanthropic work, announcing that she has donated a total of more than $640 million to hundreds of non-profit organizations. With this donation, Scott has made a significant shift in the way she gives back to the community. Whereas in his previous donations, Scott has used a "silent search" method of finding deserving organizations in secret and contacting them privately, this time, through his own organization, Yield Giving, he has chosen to make an open call for nonprofits to apply for direct donations.
According to a statement released by Scott, the open call received more than 6,000 applications, from which 361 organizations from 38 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico were selected for their "extraordinary work in advancing the voices and opportunities of individuals of modest or limited means and other discriminated communities." Yield Giving originally planned to donate $1 million to 250 organizations when the initiative was announced last year. However, the evaluators were so impressed with the number of applications that they decided to increase the number of organizations receiving awards and the amount awarded to each: 279 organizations received $2 million each, and another 82 received $1 million.
Scott is the fourth richest woman in the world, with a net worth of nearly $35 billion according to Forbes. After her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019, she received a significant boost to her wealth with a 4% stake in Amazon. That same year, she signed the Giving Pledge, pledging to give a large portion of her wealth back to the community. Last year, Scott donated more than $2 billion to 360 organizations, and in a short post on Yield Giving's website, he wrote that he was "inspired by the ways people come together to offer goodwill and support to one another."
With this open call, Scott, whose giving often focuses on education, the arts, public health, and diversity, is supporting organizations like the ACLU of Alabama, Black Girl Ventures, GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, and Ser Familia to make positive changes in their communities that make a difference in economic outcomes, education, health, and other critical issues.
Who is MacKenzie Scott?
Who is MacKenzie Scott?
MacKenzie Scott (née Tuttle, formerly Bezos; born April 7, 1970, San Francisco, California) is an American novelist and prominent humanitarian. She is also known as the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple married in 1993 and divorced in 2019. Scott is best known as the founder and executive director of the anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution.
Scott began his education at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, graduating in 1988, before graduating summa cum laude in English from Princeton University in 1992. He has been described by renowned author Toni Morrison as "one of her best students".
Scott began her professional career as a research assistant at the investment firm D. E. Shaw in New York, where she met Jeff Bezos and they married in 1993. The couple moved to Seattle in 1994 to found Amazon. They have four children, including three sons and a daughter they adopted from China.
Scott and Bezos divorced in 2019, leaving Scott with a fortune of $35.6 billion, making her one of the richest women in the world. After the divorce, Scott pledged to donate a large portion of her fortune to charity and formalized this commitment by joining The Giving Pledge. Scott's donations and social responsibility projects make her stand out not only as a businesswoman and author, but also as an important philanthropist on a global scale.
