With her most recent gifts, MacKenzie Scott has now donated more than $1 billion to universities, colleges and higher education organizations this year. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
2018 Invision
With the latest round of gifts announced in the past few days, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s total donations to dozens of colleges, universities, and other higher education organizations now exceed $1 billion for the year.
Here’s a list of the gifts, which have been focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, institutions educating a large number of chronically underserved students, and other organizations dedicated to enhancing post-secondary educational opportunities and success.
HBCUs
Seventeen HBCUs have received gifts from Scott recently, totaling more than $750 million. Most of these institutions have been recipients of Scott’s philanthropy in the past, and her most recent donation typically represents the largest private contribution in the institution’s history.
- Howard University $80 million
- North Carolina A&T State University $63 million
- Morgan State University $63 million
- Prairie View A&M University $63 million
- Virginia State University $50 million
- Norfolk State University $50 million
- Winston-Salem University $50 million
- Bowie State University $50 million
- Alcorn State University $42 million
- University of Maryland – Eastern Shore $38 million
- Spelman College $38 million
- Clark Atlanta University $38 million
- Alabama State University $38 million
- Xavier University of New Orleans $38 million
- Dillard University $19 million
- Voorhees University $19 million
- Philander Smith University $19 million
Tribal Colleges
Scott has donated a total of $51 million to several Tribal Colleges so far this year. Included in the list are Fort Peck Community College ($11 million), College of the Menominee Nation ($10 million), Bay Mills Community College ($9 million), College of the Muscogee Nation ($8 million), Blackfeet Community College ($8 million), and Little Priest Community College ($5 million).
Other Institutions
Scott has contributed almost $200 million to various two-year colleges and four-year universities known for their accessibility and affordability. The recipients include California State University-East Bay ($50 million), Lehman College ($50 million), Texas A&M University-Kingsville ($38 million), Seminole State College ($17 million), Northern Oklahoma College ($17 million), and Northeastern State University ($17 million).
Additional Higher Education Causes
In addition to her college and university gifts, Scott has recently given $70 million to the United Negro College Fund, $10 million to the George M. Pullman Educational Foundation a nonprofit dedicated to advancing access to higher education for students in the Chicago area, $42 million to 10,000 Degrees, the California-based college success organization, and $50 million to the Native Forward Scholars Fund, the largest direct provider of college scholarships for Native students.
MacKenzie Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Forbes estimates that she is worth more than $33 billion, most of which came through her divorce settlement with Bezos in 2019, when she received a 4% stake in Amazon.
In May 2019, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of her wealth over the course of her lifetime. In it, she wrote, “in addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”
On her Yield Giving website, Scott discusses the more than $19 billion she has since donated to over to 2,000 organizations. Her philosophy of giving is marked not only by the fact that she maintains a low-key approach to announcing her gifts, she also allows the nonprofits to which she donates to have full control over how to use the money. Most of the institutions to which she has donated plan to use her unrestricted gifts for a variety of purposes, including enhancement of student financial aid, expansion of academic programs, additions to their endowments, and construction or renovation of campus facilities.
In a recent post, she praised the generosity of small donors and the many volunteers who work on behalf of others, writing that while her latest round of major gifts would attract a lot of news, “any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into the world this year.”
