Mackenzie (Bezos) Scott Announces She’s Donated $4.1 Billion To 384 Groups In Recent…

MacKenzie Scott — the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos — announced Tuesday that she’s donated more than $4.1 billion over the past four months to nearly 400 organizations helping fulfill basic needs for many Americans struggling in the pandemic.

“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” Scott writes. “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”

Scott, who received one-quarter of her ex-husband’s Amazon stock in their divorce settlement in 2019, is the third richest woman in the world, behind L’Oreal heir Francoise Bettencourt and Walmart heir Alice Walton. Scott is worth an estimated $55.1 billion, according to Forbes’ calculations, after taking into account her newest charitable giving.

In a post on Medium, Scott, a novelist, said she and her team had vetted hundreds of organizations in recent months and ultimately donated $4.158 billion to 384 groups, which she named and linked to in her post. Recipients include community colleges and universities like Blackfeet Community College in Montana; food banks and meal providers like Feeding America, America’s Second Harvest and Meals on Wheels; and many individual YMCAs and YWCAs.

Scott also says that her gifts to these organizations are unrestricted, meaning that were not earmarked for certain initiatives. That allows the recipients to use the money however they best see fit.

“Not only are non-profits chronically underfunded, they are also chronically diverted from their work by fundraising, and by burdensome reporting requirements that donors often place on them,” she writes. By freeing nonprofit groups of that burden, she hopes the organizations can focus on their primary work —meeting the needs of those they serve.