MacKenzie Scott

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Amazon.com

FUNDING AREAS: Health, Science, Immigrants, Gender Equity, Climate Change, Racial Justice, Economic Development, Global Development, LGBTQ Rights, Civic & Democracy, Criminal Justice

OVERVIEW: MacKenzie Scott is a Giving Pledge signatory. In her comments on the pledge, Scott nodded heavily toward her identity as a fiction author, quoting a passage from Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life.” In July 2020, in a much publicized Medium post, Scott announced $1.7 billion in grants to 116 organizations supporting a wide and growing range of progressive causes. Five months later, Scott followed that announcement with another that revealed an additional $4 billion in grants to 384 organizations across the United States. She has since made more announcements, approximately every six months, bringing her total giving to around $16.5 billion over the past few years. A detailed breakdown of Scott’s giving is available on her Yield Giving website’s Gifts page.

She also issued an open call for applications from “organizations working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States: communities, individuals, and families with access to the fewest foundational resources and opportunities.” The first round of Open Call giving gave $640 million to 361 small nonprofits.

BACKGROUND: MacKenzie Scott was born in San Francisco and graduated from Princeton University in 1992. She worked at the investment firm D.E. Shaw on Wall Street, where she met Jeff Bezos, who went on to found Amazon, a company whose value has climbed dramatically since the early 2000s. Her debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, won an American Book Award in 2006. Scott is the executive director of Bystander Revolution, an anti-bullying organization she founded. She made her first major grants alongside her then-husband; however, since her divorce from Bezos in 2019, Scott’s grantmaking has greatly eclipsed that of her ex and largely takes the form of unrestricted grants to organizations across the U.S. She announced her marriage to school teacher Dan Jewett in March 2021 and their divorce in September 2022.

MacKenzie Scott does not maintain a foundation or tax-exempt charitable organization. However, she documents her philanthropy on a website, Yield Giving, which is “named after a belief in adding value by giving up control.” Scott’s giving appears to focus broadly on social justice, health and “organizations working to advance the opportunities of people in underserved communities.” According to her process page, grantees are mainly selected through “quiet research,” but the site will post “open calls” on occasion. Scott elaborates on her philanthropic goals and experiences on the essays section of her site.

ISSUES:

RACIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY: Though much of Scott’s giving is conducted through an equity lens, her grantmaking for growing racial equity goes beyond funding HBCUs and includes Movement for Black Lives, Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC, First Nations Development Institute, the Opportunity Agenda, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Additionally, in March 2022, Scott donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity to promote homeownership in Black and minority communities.

ECONOMIC MOBILITY: Scott has given nearly $400 million for economic mobility programs. She has supported National Domestic Workers Alliance, Oweesta Corporation, Low Income Investment Fund, Enterprise Community Partners, and Capital Impact Partners. She has also given $40 million to Local Initiatives Support Corporation to “advance racial and economic justice and [build] a broadly shared prosperity throughout the country,” and $50 million to RIP Medical Debt.

WOMEN AND GIRLS AND GENDER EQUALITY: Mackenzie Scott has partnered with Melinda Gates to create Equality Can’t Wait, a $30 million grant contest focused on gender equality. Recent grantmaking related to women and girls centers on organizations that are predominately women-led and that address the empowerment, safety, legal representation and rights, as well as education, of women and girls. Past women and girls grantees include Educate Girls, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, and National Women’s Law Center, among others. Scott has also given $25 million to the Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity to support its work to advance gender, reproductive, and racial equity, and $275 million for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, including numerous state-based and regional affiliates. Scott gave $84.5 million to Girl Scouts of the USA and 29 of its local branches to help the organization recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT: In keeping with her overall agenda, Scott’s grants for global development prioritize equity, and include support for sustainable farming and humanitarian causes. Her grants total $130 million in this area. Organizations she has supported include Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Ushahidi, and One Acre Fund.

HEALTH: Since 2020, Scott’s individual giving in this area has been conducted through an intersectional lens that considers racial, gender, and sexual orientation in its approach. Her health funding centers on health equality, as well as reproductive health and abortion access. In 2024, she teamed up with Melinda French Gates’s Pivotal Ventures on a $23 million commitment to the School Based Health Alliance, which supports comprehensive school-based health programs across the U.S. In 2022, she donated $275 million to Planned Parenthood’s national office and 21 regional affiliate. Other past health and pandemic-related grantees include Living Goods + Last Mile Health — COVID-19 Response, Partners in Health — StopCOVID, Centering Healthcare Institute, the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, the Families and Workers Fund, and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund, as well as others. She has also given $30 million to National Alliance on Mental Illness.

ENVIRONMENT: Scott’s environmental giving focuses on climate change mitigation awarding $125 million for organizations working towards this goal in the first half of 2020 alone. Past climate change and clean energy grantees include Echoing Green, European Climate Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy — Blue Bonds & US Climate Action.

CIVIC AND DEMOCRACY: Concerned about the rising inequalities that affect Americans today, Scott’s giving related to civic engagement and democracy-building center on voting rights and lessening the effects of political polarization. Past grantees here include the Center for Election Innovation & Research, Voter Engagement Fund and With Honor.

LGBTQ: Related giving focuses on securing and maintaining LBGTQ rights, as well as providing fellowships and community development grants to LGBTQ elders. Past LGBTQ grantees include The Trevor Project, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Fund for Trans Generations, Lambda Legal, Triangle Project, and SAGEUSA. In July 2020, she announced $46 million in total giving to LGBTQ equity groups

BIPOC: Scott prioritized support for the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in 2023 and heavily supported groups throughout the country. Some of the groups that received gifts include Asian American Journalists Association, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS), Asian Law Caucus, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Hmong American Partnership, and Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF).

STEM AND EDUCATION: Scott has donated tens of millions of dollars to education organizations such as the American Indian Graduate Center, Black Girls CODE, Educate Girls, BRAC — Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiatives, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, HBCUs such as Howard University and Morehouse College, as well as Spelman College, Tuskegee University, Norfolk State University, and the UNCF (United Negro College Fund, among several others. She has also given $30 million to Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, $30 million to Lehman College/CUNY in the Bronx, N.Y., and $15 million to Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles. Scott’s emphasis on education splits funding between organizations that support women and BIPOC. Future giving may continue this trend. In early 2022, Scott donated $133.5 million to Communities in Schools to help disadvantaged students.

Scott’s 2023 funding has included early childhood development and education in its focus and groups that have received at least $1 million in support during the first half of 2023 include Alliance for Early Success, Parent Possible, Neighborhood VillagesGeorgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, Early Edge California, Raising Childcare Fund, Parents as Teachers, Start Early and Zero to Three

As an author and novelist, Scott supports reading and literacy groups and has given $20 million to Reading Partners, an early literacy organization.

IMMIGRANTS: Scott, with Bezos, previously donated $33 million to a scholarship fund for young “dreamers,” immigrants brought to the United States as children. The award supported TheDream.US, a scholarship program that has awarded more than 1,700 immigrants more than $19 million in financial assistance since it launched. The money funds 1,000 college scholarships. Post-Bezos, Scott continues her support of TheDream.US. She has also given to support refugees in Ukraine.

VIOLENCE PREVENTION: Tied to grantmaking for women and girls, as well as protections for the LGBTQ and Black communities, Scott’s violence prevention work invests in protecting children, such as Thorn. Related violence prevention grantees include RAINN, Collective Future Fund, and Futures Without Violence.

ARTS & CULTURE: Scott is a novelist who appreciates issues centered on the written word. Narrative4, On Being, and StoryCorps are past grantees that speak to her appreciation for writing. Scott’s June 2021 grant announcement revealed an emphasis on arts and culture organizations with a strong focus on equity and racial justice. Grantees include Black Ensemble Theater, Oregon Arts and Culture Recovery Fund, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Motown Museum, Apollo Theater, and Ashé Cultural Arts Center.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND YOUTH: Scott donated $281 million to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, with $256 million split among the 62 local clubs and the remaining $25 million directed to the national office in Atlanta. She has also given to Habitat for Humanity and its regional affiliates—$436 million in total. She gave $38.8 million to Junior Achievement USA and $55 million to the California Community Foundation to support affordable housing in L.A. She has also given $10 million to Homestead Community Land Trust to help build affordable housing.

VETERANS AND MILITARY: Scott gave $20 million for Operation Homefront, which provides financial assistance and other services to military families.

OTHER: Scott’s ambitious grantmaking agenda includes support for groups dedicated to promoting empathy and bridging divides, including for StoryCorps, Muslim Advocates, and Neutral Zone.

LOOKING FORWARD: Scott is in her 50s and has only begun to make her grantmaking priorities known. Already her work has established her as a once in a generation philanthropist. Perhaps down the line, she may create her own formal foundation; however, in the meantime, grantseekers should keep an eye on Yield Giving’s dual pathway giving process, which promises to continue her under the radar grantmaking as well as try out more accessible methods of giving, such as her open call.