HOUSTON — MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist known for her impromptu multi-billion dollar donations to charities and racial equity causes, announced Tuesday that she has given $2.7 billion to 286 organizations.
Note: the video in this story is from Dec. 2020 when Scott donated millions to 2 Texas universities
This is the third round of major philanthropic gifts Scott has made, which together rival the charitable contributions made by the largest foundations.
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, wrote in a Medium post that she and her husband, Dan Jewett, made the donations to enable the recipients to continue their work and as a “signal of trust and encouragement” to them and others.
And she made clear in her announcement that she is troubled by the increasing concentration of vast wealth among a small proportion of individuals. She and Jewett worked with a team of researchers and philanthropy advisors “to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change.”
“In this effort," she said, “we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.”
Houston-area groups among latest recipients
Project Row Houses in Third Ward, Lee College in Baytown, San Jacinto Community College and Brazosport College are among the local groups getting money this time around.
You can see the full list here.
Not the first time she has done this
In 2020, Scott made two similar surprise announcements in which she donated a combined $6 billion to COVID-19 relief, gender equity, historically Black colleges and universities and other schools.
In Southeast Texas, they included YMCA of Greater Houston and Prairie View A&M University.
Similar to the organizations she picked as recipients last year, Scott said the 286 organizations chosen for Tuesday's announcement were selected from a rigorous process of research and analysis. That effort included “equity-oriented” nonprofits working in long-neglected areas.
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“Because we believe that teams with experience on the front lines of challenges will know best how to put the money to good use, we encouraged them to spend it however they choose,” she wrote.
The latest recipients range from universities to refugee resettlement groups to arts and culture organizations that have suffered from a drop in giving as donors focused on more urgent needs brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.