MacKenzie Scott’s Website and Grants Database Has Arrived. Here’s We Know — and Don't Know

This article was originally published on December 15, 2022.

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given away more than $14 billion over the last four years with only an occasional Medium essay to keep the world posted on what has become a historic philanthropic project. Until yesterday.

The novelist and billionaire launched a website Wednesday that details for the first time how she chooses grantees, along with a database of who she has funded so far, a long-awaited development for philanthropy watchers and grantseekers. Scott even rolled out a new name for this massive, norm-shattering project: Yield Giving.

It’s a welcome step toward transparency from an operation that has set a new high-water mark for many of the philanthropic best practices that IP and others have been calling on for years — unrestricted gifts, limited paperwork, community-driven grantees, generous amounts regardless of grantee size. Yet until now, the effort had divulged very little about its own deliberations or total grantmaking. In fact, that’s been our main critique of Scott’s giving, along with some advice David Callahan offered on how she might make a more lasting impact.

Additionally, there has never been a way to contact the donor or apply for funding. Well, the website also breaks some welcome news for those hoping to get on the radar of Scott and the team of consultants guiding her giving. At some point in the future, Yield Giving will hold an “open call process to introduce an additional pathway for information about organizations to reach us,” and offer an “online application and criteria for eligibility and selection.” Ready those proposals!

Dollar signs this time

Fittingly for the two-time author, the homepage opens with a definition — of “yield” — and links to her essays, both those published on Medium and her Giving Pledge letter. The minimalist website eschews any photos in favor of plain text on an off-white background that calls to mind, naturally, the pages of a book. Yet it is the two less literary sections — Gifts and Process — that provide the real insight.

The most notable addition is a first-ever database of Yield’s 1,604 grantees. While we have to take her word for it that it is complete (Scott does not use a foundation that would require 990s with grants lists), there are “dollar signs this time,” with most entries showing the amount granted, along with the standard info (dates, descriptions and website links). Yet it’s not quite possible to total everything up. Many listings have the following note in place of a figure: “disclosure delayed for benefit of recipient.”

That suggests Scott sought to clear the publication of grant amounts with grantees, tracking with her previously stated hope to defer to beneficiaries on how they share the news (a move that caused a brief uproar). That balance of privacy for grantees and transparency for her philanthropy is one that Scott has grappled with along the way, and the publication of dollar amounts all in one place, while ultimately the right move, may bring uncomfortable attention to some on the list.

That already seems to be the case for one big grantee of Scott’s — her own advisors, the Bridgespan Group. On the day the database went live, the consulting firm published a statement regarding their own hefty gift of $40 million in late 2020. Apparently trying to get out in front of conflict-of-interest concerns, the statement reads, “While we are an advisor of Scott’s on her philanthropy, we did not have prior knowledge of or involvement with the decision to include Bridgespan as a grant recipient.”

There’s also a note at the end: “While we do not have a practice of announcing grants we receive, with the anticipated publication of MacKenzie Scott’s database of grantees and an attendant uptick in inquiries we have received about our grant, we wanted not only to express our deep appreciation but also to share how we are using this extraordinary gift.”

Aside from numbers, the grants database has some handy features. With filters for focus area and geography, the database offers the first publicly available means of sorting through the billions of awards she’s made since her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. That said, the focus area field is self-reported by recipients, resulting in some unconventional results. For instance, search for grants under the four “environment” tags, and the results will include a $4.9 million grant to the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles and many similar grants. Welcome to the head-scratching world of philanthropy data, Yield Giving.

The “region” and “country” tags offer a fascinating snapshot of where she has given major amounts to local groups (Africa stands out) and where she has not (Europe). Granted, this tag is also self-reported, with a lot of U.S. and European groups classifying themselves as “global.” Best of all, perhaps, you can download any search for easier review and number crunching.

How grants are made

Another lingering concern about Scott’s giving is the uncertainty about how, exactly, decisions are being made. The new website shed just a little more light on that process, with the first-ever details of Yield’s grantmaking process to date, though little in the five bullet points will surprise anyone paying close attention to her chosen recipients and their stories of receiving those life-changing calls. It involves quiet, anonymous research looking for groups “working to advance the opportunities of people in underserved communities” and meeting a set of criteria, including “high potential for sustained positive impact… measurement and evidence of outcomes, and experienced leadership representative of the community served.”

However, it does provide a self-description — for the first time, as far as I can tell — of the type of team Scott relies on, which we’ve all mainly been piecing together on our own. While it's well-known that she’s relied on Bridgespan, and that she has her own family office, Lost Horse LLC, few other details have emerged. The final bullet explains that Yield works with a network of consultants, nonprofit leaders and other philanthropists as advisors. There’s been a sense to date that Bridgespan is largely guiding the way, but it seems they have company.

We may soon get some names. As part of the upcoming open call for applications, there will be an evaluation team with a “publicly posted panel.” Perhaps we’ll finally put some other names and faces to this massive operation.

What is still missing?

As others have pointed out, it feels churlish to critique a philanthropist who is doing so much right, and helping to overturn so many outdated norms in the process. Yet she has shown she’s responsive to criticism. And it’s a steadfast belief at Inside Philanthropy that no grantmaker is beyond critique.

And in fact, there’s one gaping hole in what she’s provided. In her bulleted list of “website goals” from 2021, one task read: “describe giving team.” She’s technically done that, but without naming a single person, or even organization, that is involved. Other than the details in a story by Teddy Schleifer of Puck, we still have no idea who’s making those calls. As the saying goes, “personnel is policy.”

A more traditional operation might also be expected to have a more clearly stated mission, vision, values and other verbiage. But this billionaire and self-described “private person” has instead written more than a half-dozen reflective essays. Collectively, they likely reveal as much as, or more than, any number of crafted taglines. And there’s the definition: “yield: (verb) 1. to increase 2. to give up control.” What more do you need?

Other than the lack of staffing transparency, I see few faults with what she’s provided. Sure, there are minor quibbles — it is odd, for instance, that gifts cannot be filtered by year, and the lack of a physical address, even a city, for her operation is strange for a philanthropist who so values community roots. There’s also still no means to contact them, though given the worldwide interest her no-holds-barred giving has spurred, perhaps that’s understandable. And it is explained.

On the whole, the website offers yet another example of Scott overturning mega-donor conventional wisdom. She’s continuing to chart a path that casts off the clumsy, self-involved conventions of traditional foundations, while eventually coming around to some of their well-considered best practices. Yield Giving’s website is a great illustration of this balance. There’s no need for photos, verbose descriptions and flashy design. Share where the money is going and why. That acknowledges your power while keeping the focus on grantees.

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