By Thalia Beatty, The Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire creator and philanthropist Mackenzie Scott acknowledged one other $2 billion in donations in a weblog publish Wednesday, bringing her complete since 2019 to $19.2 billion.
She additionally revealed new details about how she manages her wealth, saying she has directed advisors to speculate her cash in “mission-aligned initiatives.” She mentioned a lot of the grants she awarded in 2024 went to selling financial safety and alternative.
“I’ve requested the funding workforce to assist me handle the property I’m offloading to funding funds and corporations centered on for-profit options to those challenges,” Scott wrote. This contrasts with “withdrawing cash from a checking account, or from a inventory portfolio, which will increase the wealth and affect of the leaders who already personal it.”
Most of Scott’s wealth comes from Amazon inventory, which she acquired when she divorced firm founder Jeff Bezos. Forbes estimates her present wealth at $31.7 billion, even after donating her cash for 5 years.
Gabrielle Fitzgerald, founder and CEO of Panorama Group, researched Scott’s giving and offered recommendation and help to nonprofits that obtained Scott’s items. She mentioned she sees an growing focus in Scott’s giving on poverty points.
“She creates an incredible position mannequin for philanthropists, though I do not see many who observe her instance,” Fitzgerald mentioned. “However this actually exhibits that it is simple to donate some huge cash to good teams.”
When asserting items on her Yield Giving web site, Scott contemplated the which means of “funding,” writing that it “appears to have undergone a sort of semantic withering. In its large, lovely, authentic record of definitions? To commit sources to a helpful goal. To offer rights. To clothes.”
Scott, who doesn’t touch upon her giving past a uncommon publish on her web site, has shaken up the nonprofit sector along with her embrace of “trust-based philanthropy,” making massive grants with out strings hooked up to greater than 2,450 nonprofits.
In 2024, it additionally made recurring items to a number of organizations – marking a brand new improvement in its giving, which set a excessive bar for the quantity and pace of donations massive donors could make. Two organizations, CAMFED, which helps ladies’ training in Africa, and Undue Medical Debt, previously known as RIP Medical Debt, obtained third donations from Scott this 12 months.
Grant recipients say that when Scott’s workforce notifies them of grants, they are saying they do not anticipate extra help. So it got here as a shock to Sean Donovan, CEO of reasonably priced housing group Enterprise Group Companions, when he obtained information of a second massive donation.
“I used to be getting my baggage by safety at LaGuardia Airport, and my telephone rang and so they advised me MacKenzie Scott was giving us one other $65 million,” Donovan mentioned in a November interview.
His group obtained $50 million from Scott in 2020, making it one of many nonprofits that obtained probably the most funding from Scott, primarily based on grant knowledge posted on the Yield Giving web site. About 500 organizations haven’t disclosed how a lot funding they’ve obtained from Scott.
“We weren’t anticipating their second reward. Each time they offer this funding, it is very clear that organizations should not anticipate this,” Donovan mentioned, including that his recommendation is: “Actually strategy it this manner.” Don’t use it for regular working bills. Do not use it for issues that can create a gap or gap in your funds in your group.
This was already a banner 12 months for Scott’s giving as a result of it was the primary time it had awarded grants by the appliance course of. In March, it introduced the recipients of an “open name” for purposes from non-profit organizations. It shocked recipients by giving extra money to extra organizations than it initially promised, allocating $640 million to greater than 360 nonprofits.
In a single measure of demand for its massive, unrestricted grants, 6,353 nonprofits utilized by the nonprofit Lever for Change, which administered Scott’s “open name.” In the long run, 279 nonprofits obtained $2 million, whereas 82 organizations obtained $1 million every. Beforehand, the organizations mentioned that they had responded to questions from an nameless donor who turned out to be silent or had simply obtained an e-mail or chilly name with none request in any respect.
The truth that its grants are unrestricted, which means nonprofits can use them nonetheless they wish to additional their charitable goal, is a part of what makes them so invaluable, Donovan mentioned. 5 years after its charitable marketing campaign, he mentioned that its influence can now be seen in total sectors.
“The size of this giving modified not solely particular person organizations, however total areas like reasonably priced housing,” he mentioned.
Related Press protection of philanthropy and nonprofits receives help by an AP collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content material. For all of AP’s philanthropy protection, go to
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