If their choice is to hold onto that wealth or give it away, Im going to come down on the side of giving it away every time., Giving Billions Fast, MacKenzie Scott Upends Philanthropy, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html. Women-led, Black women-led organizations tend to be at the very bottom of the pile for philanthropists, said Dorri McWhorter, the head of the Y.W.C.A. Feel free to contact us anytime. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower others.". Many of the gifts were the largest the charities had ever received. Many only barely meet that requirement, instead hoarding their cash and giving away less than the profits they earn through investments. MacKenzie Scott is a philanthropist, author, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to whom she was married for 25 years. GRANT APPLICATION Jacksonville's Scott R. MacKenzie Foundation offers grants for genetic research. Additionally, the National 4-H Council, an agriculturally focused youth organization, received $50 million. In the course of a few months, Ms. Scott has turned traditional philanthropy on its head. But she is not using a foundation. That allows their endowments to keep growing and the foundations to survive in perpetuity, and some foundations argue that it allows them to take the time to make grants that will yield the best results. In December 2021, Scott briefly tried to withdraw even further from the limelight, and announced that she would let her recipients announce her gifts themselves. Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated almost $2 billion to more than 300 organizations in the last seven months, she said in a Medium post Monday. David Callahan, founder of the website Inside Philanthropy, added that while Ms. Scott was clearly focused on organizations doing work on the front lines, she had so far shown little interest in the think tanks and research institutes that often shape policy in Washington and statehouses around the country. Hes stepping down as Amazon CEO later this year and says he plans to focus on other passions, including the Bezos Earth Fund, the Day 1 Fund, and The Washington Post. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information| Ad Choices All completed Initial Grant Applications must be submitted by April 30 for consideration in that year. MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos) has announced the recipients of $1.67 billion in grants awarded since she signed the Giving Pledge fourteen months ago. On a Monday evening in November, Dorri McWhorter, the chief executive of the Y.W.C.A. Among the recipients are more than 220 organizations operating globally, half of which are based outside the United States. Today, they are worth about $62 billion, although its unclear how many of the shares Ms. Scott still holds. To subscribe, select any of the newsletters listed below. Get some sleep," Scott suggested. To subscribe, select any of the newsletters listed below. It also distinguished her from her former husband, the richest man in the world. Now, for the third time in under a year, Ms. Scott has announced a new round of grants, worth a combined $2.74 billion, demonstrating that her dedication to rapidly disbursing her fortune has not abated. If Ms. Scott was making her donations through a foundation, she would be required to publicly disclose the amounts and recipients of all gifts. She noted that she had made unsolicited and unexpected gifts given with full trust and no strings attached. Such strings are a mainstay of modern philanthropy: onerous grant proposals and nerve-racking site visits, followed by reports on the variety of performance benchmarks that charities are required to meet to keep the money flowing. Recognizes the positive impact of diversity to improve lives in our community. Please note: Mackenzie Charitable Foundation do not make grants to individuals. Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter examines how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of todays executives. Accions Covid relief fund provided support to The Red Door, helping Free to pivot her business model. Yield Givings website includes a page devoted to Scotts process, describing the quiet research and evaluations her team has relied upon to pick recipients. This can include advocacy to push a cause forward, convening peers for knowledge exchange, introducing new funders to locally based peers, and organizing to regrant to more grassroots organizations. In her post on Medium, she explained that her teams focus, which includes new areas, has been to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds. According to the Giving Pledge signatory, approximately 60 percent of the organizations that have received gifts are led by women, and 75 percent are led by people with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address. In her latest round of donations, Ms. Scott did not list the amount she gave each organization, but her blog post included a list of those receiving funds. It stings to be on the outside when others in the network are receiving gifts.. Ms. Scotts disbursement of $6 billion in about five months only accentuated the stodgy pace of her peers. BEGIN THE APPLICATION PROCESS. Exceptions may be made for religious organizations who can demonstrate bona fide occupational qualifications based on religious belief for employment and volunteer participation. Ms. Scott's latest round of giving was less than the $4.2 billion in grants announced in December, which she linked directly to the enormous needs generated by the pandemic. The website dropped at the end of a year in which Scott became more famous than ever, despite her shying from the spotlight, and not always for her donations. MacKenzie Scott, the reclusive billionaire who has in three years donated upwards of $14 billion to more than 1,600 nonprofits, may start accepting applications from would-be recipients. Rodriguez is already putting the funds to work: $8 million will be redistributed, she says, to support artists of color in the groups network. She has so far given away more than $8 billion in three rounds of funding revealed in the same manner. As she has before, Ms. Scott also included a literary reference, this time from the Sufi poet Rumi. And rather than a few targeted donations, she gave broadly to hundreds of groups. Fundraising expenses or activities or staff positions related to development or fundraising. MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is giving away her $46 billion fortune faster than anyone in history. The total amount of her giving in 2020 outstripped the entirety of the $5.1 billion in grants given by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2019, one of the worlds top philanthropic organizations. She does not have a foundation of her own, which would require detailed public filings and a potentially large staff. "Bezos' support comes at a critical moment as we broaden and deepen our efforts to support LGBTQ students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color and LGBTQ students who are grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. MacKenzie Scott An umbrella organization for more than 120 women's funds and foundations is among the recipients of the latest $2.7 billion round of grants from McKenzie Scott. Its really critical for any philanthropist to address the inequities of how their wealth was created, she said. Our programs and grants help create joyful, enriching experiences that lay the foundation for a lifetime of learning, and provide adults with the knowledge and skills they need to give children the best possible start. The university said Scott and Jewett "were drawn to UTSA because of the university's strong commitment to create pathways to success for students from communities with significant educational attainment and income disparities" as well is its commitment to serving Latino students. Morgan could do with it as it saw fit. Corporate events, the companys bread and butter, dried up overnight. After calls for more transparency, in December Scott wrote that she hopes to launch a website with a searchable grants database this year. We know that LGBTQ young people are powerful and resilient, and Bezos' gift will allow us to help more LGBTQ young people pursue higher education and achieve their full potential as leaders in our society.". His network of nonprofits in November 2021 received a surprise phone call from a member of Scotts team, promising grants thateventually totalled$133.5million, for the national organization and 40 of its 110 affiliates; but for the 70 other affiliates, Saldaa acknowledged, the conversation was a difficult one. Like the $4 billion Scott gave to 384 organizations in the last four months of 2020, the donations are unrestricted, so recipients can use the money as they see fit. In giving away her billions so rapidly, Ms. Scott continues to chip away at the philanthropic status quo, which is dominated by big foundations with large program staffs that select grantees and manage the donations. Yet in the latest batch of grantees, Ms. Morey saw little evidence that Ms. Scott was attempting to use her wealth to counter Amazons influence. historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges. I even shed a tear. Wilson says he plans to add 95% of Scotts donation to Morgans $100 million endowment, which will help fund scholarships, academic research and innovative new programs including work on health equity and intergenerational mobility. All ten nonprofit leaders Forbes spoke with say the unrestricted and ultimately more trusting nature of Scotts philanthropy is the exception, not the norm in their world. She was behind the wheel when she and Mr. Bezos drove to Seattle to start an online bookstore named after a Brazilian river. But during a deep recession and an era of epic inequality, the traditional approach has fueled criticisms that foundations are more interested in preserving themselves than in helping those in desperate need. The choices, experiences, and reflections of Scotts global grant recipients provide valuable insights to understand where global development aid has fallen short and how to improve philanthropy in order to advance systems change. Shes moved extraordinary sums out the door, quickly, in an anti-paternalistic way, said Rob Reich, co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford. The purpose of the Grants Process is to accomplish the mission of the Foundation through innovative and effective grantmaking and stewardship in a way that: All organizations applying for Foundation funds must be able to demonstrate the following organizational characteristics: Copyright 2014 - McKenzie Foundation - All rights reserved. As part of their split, she received 4 percent of the outstanding shares of Amazon. The Scott grants provide them with breathing room, flexibility to make strategic choices, and the opportunity to focus on systems change work. MacKenzie Scott has unveiled a website to provide more transparency around her philanthropic efforts. But Scotts gifts in 2020 were unrestricted, indicating she trusted the people on the ground doing the work, and it gives lie to the idea that its hard to make billion-dollar donations. As she did in July when she announced donations of $1.7 billion to 116 organizations, Ms. Scott unveiled her latest round of philanthropy through a post on Medium. MacKenzie. The president of the University of Central Florida said his institution will receive $40 million the largest donation in the university's history. The website unveiled this week is the result. Other recipients include theAdvancement Project,American Indian Graduate Center, Co-Impact,Grantmakers for Girls of Color,Groundswell Fund, LatinoJustice, Movement for Black Lives,Narrative4,Point Foundation, PolicyLink, RAINN, Spelman College, andUnidosUS. But a new Bloomberg report makes excellent use of a visual timeline to provide some perspective on just how much more generous Scott has been with her money compared to her ex-husband Jeff Bezos: Since their divorcein 2019, shes become one of themost consequential philanthropists of her generation. We want to invest it over decades.. If he needs some pointers on how to have a meaningful impact with his gigantic fortune, he could do a lot worse than to take a few tips from his ex. The development community can learn about how to fund internationally from the choices, questions, and experiences of Scott grant recipients. hide caption. The Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization . Her net worth, estimated at $36.1 billion in October 2019, has increased by some $23 billion since then. In ablog post, Scott whose divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly left her with Amazon stock valued at more than $35 billion and whotweetedon Tuesday that she would begin using her middle name as her last name wrote that she had been working with nonprofit advisors from historically marginalized race, gender, and sexual identity groups to help identify and evaluate potential grantees. The business was teetering on the brink. Morgan State University, a historically Black public college in Baltimore that traces its roots to the year 1867, has always struggled financially. Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, said at the time of Scott's last round of donations that she was "putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven't [figured] out comparable ways to boldly share. The University of Texas at San Antonio is also receiving $40 million, which its president called "completely transformational." The article also notes that Bezos and Scott tend to differ in how they donate their money. However, in a field already torn apart by competition and a scarcity mindset, this can create tensions between those that received Scott grants and others that didnt. Two previous Accion loans allowed Free to expand her Oakland, California catering business, The Red Door, from a couple of employees and a van in 2011 to dozens of employees and a 5,000 square foot kitchen before the pandemic. The Scott R. MacKenzie Foundation funds leading-edge human genetic research to advance cures for cancer, lung disease, diabetes and heart disease. Bezos is following in the footsteps of other famous billionaires who turned their focus toward philanthropy after retiring from the day-to-day of running a business. Email to ctucker@scottrmackenziefoundation.com or mail to 2518 Park Street, Suite 2, Jacksonville, FL 32204. Scotts windfall grants have few or no strings attached and center on race, gender, equity, and localized decision-making. Anyone can read what you share. MacKenzie Scott seems to be nonresponsive to traditional approaches (there is no application process) and operates much more like a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). Subscribe here. Buy chairs for them. They divorced in mid-2019 and she received 25% of his Amazon stake. She thought she had found her lifes calling, but says there were a lack of opportunities. Mr. Bezos has made some big charitable commitments but has not made philanthropy a top priority. "These are people who have spent years successfully advancing humanitarian aims, often without knowing whether there will be any money in their bank . FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Ms. Scott also gave to higher-education institutions including schools in the University of California and the University of Texas systems; organizations focused on racial justice, such as Race Forward and Borealis Philanthropy; groups focused on gender equity and combating domestic violence; and an assortment of other nonprofits including the Authors League Fund, which helps writers in financial need, and Afrika Tikkun, which works to end child poverty in South Africa. For example, at national organizations with many affiliates across the country, she has funded some affiliates but not otherswithout asking those nonprofits for inputoccasionally creating internal difficulties and confusion for her recipients. She gave surprise gifts totaling $410 million to historically Black colleges and universities in December 2020 alone, adding to the nearly $6 billion she gave away last year. But the Red Door had the rug pulled out from under it when Covid hit. The first email literally got stuck in my junk mail.. MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is shown here in 2018. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Her net worth, which Forbes estimates at $60 billion, keeps rising, thanks to Amazon stock. The MacKenzie Scott Opportunities Scholarship (S.O.S) will assist first-time, credential-seeking, young adults under age 25 attend college. You may request printed copies of these forms by contacting Client Relations at 18003870614 or at service@mackenzieinvestments.com. Unrestricted large grants help push the global development field forward with opportunity for increased growth, sustainability, and innovation. Its no secret MacKenzie Scott has committed some stunning acts of philanthropy of late. We have to accelerate. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP So far, MacKenzie Scott has donated almost $6 billion in gifts. Scott is currently worth about $21.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. Image Credit: Instagram MacKenzie Scott Foundation Website Metropolitan Chicago. This system forces them to constantly fundraise and use a patchwork approach to finance their missions, rather than letting them focus on accomplishing those missions. 5 min read. It works on two levels!). "We are so grateful for MacKenzie Bezos' support of our work to empower LGBTQ students and springboard a new generation of LGBTQ leaders toward success," said Jorge Valencia, executive director and CEO of the Point Foundation, the nation's largest LGBTQ scholarship fund. Since colleges and universities began shuttering their campuses, our students have faced incredible challenges, from losing safe housing after campus closures to losing jobs and income. Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has announced details of the more than $3.86 billion in gifts she has awarded since June of 2021.. Over the past nine months, Scott has awarded grants to 465 nonprofits. Similar scenes were playing out at charities nationwide. Ms. Scott appears attuned to the fact that her vast and growing fortune is made possible through Amazon, a company that has long faced scrutiny for its harsh working conditions and the myriad ways it has reshaped the economy, often centralizing wealth and power along the way. Organizations where person(s) are excluded from employment, volunteer participation, or agency services because of age, gender, race, national origin, religious beliefs and background, physical abilities, disability, sexual orientation, economic circumstances, and any other characteristic protected by law. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. By disbursing her money quickly and without much hoopla, Ms. Scott has pushed the focus away from the giver and onto the nonprofits she is trying to help. Whereas multibillion foundations like Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have fancy headquarters, Ms. Scotts operation has no known address or even website. We're looking at the crisis of the epidemic, the economic crisis, the climate crisis, and this moment of racial reckoning. Long Beach City College, in California, thanked Scott for $30 million also the single largest donation in its history. While non-profits and philanthropic experts alike have praised Scotts generosityand the massive scale and speed of her giving, as well as the unrestricted nature of her donationsthe secrecy around her process and lack of communication have created some frustrations even among her recipients, as a Fortune feature in March reported. Room, flexibility to make strategic choices, and this moment of racial reckoning she had found her lifes,... Shaping the roles and responsibilities of todays executives to make strategic choices, and experiences of Scott grant.! 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