Here’s a feel good story for your Tuesday. When Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott’s divorce was finalized in 2019, Mackenzie reportedly received a $36 billion settlement. In 2019, she took the “Giving Pledge” to donate to good causes until the “safe is empty.” She updates her charitable endeavors via her website Yield Giving. Over the past six years, we’ve learned that MacKenzie has donated billions to different charities and worldwide organizations, including food banks, several HBCUs, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, RAINN, Planned Parenthood, European Climate Foundation, and more. According to Yield Giving, MacKenzie’s donations now total more than $19 billion to 2,450+ non-profits to “use as they see fit for the benefit of others.”
The Center for Effective Philanthropy recently published a three-year study on the “transformative effects” of MacKenzie’s donations. Unsurprisingly, it found that although the total effects of her generosity won’t be fully realized for quite some time, after just five years, the results are “overwhelmingly positive.”
Since MacKenzie Scott’s marriage to Jeff Bezos ended six years ago, she has shaken up the nonprofit world with her particular brand of billion-dollar generosity. This year marks the sixth anniversary after the author and mom of four’s divorce from the Amazon founder became official in 2019, resulting in an approximately $36 billion settlement.
Since then, the 54-year-old Scott, who is currently 68th on Forbes’ billionaires list, has “transformed” philanthropy with her sizable, unrestricted donations, according to a three-year study published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy in February: She has given away more than $19 billion to more than 2,000 organizations.
“It could take decades to truly understand the effects these gifts have had on nonprofits and the sector at large,” the report reads. “However, after five years of giving, the reported effects of her gifts on recipient organizations … remain overwhelmingly positive.”
Scott’s new chapter in philanthropy began with her split from Bezos. The two share four children — three sons and a daughter. Bezos retained 75% of the former couple’s Amazon shares, which was about 12% of the company, while MacKenzie kept roughly 4%, The New York Times reported at the time.
For Scott, her focus has been on raising her family and continuing to make an impact through her philanthropic work. Last year, she made headlines when she announced she was giving away $640 million to 361 nonprofit groups across the country, which were chosen from over 6,000 applicants.
“Each of these 361 community-led non-profits was elevated by peer organizations and a round-2 evaluation panel for their outstanding work advancing the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means,” Scott wrote in a post on her Yield Giving website, “and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles.”
In 2019, Scott also made the Giving Pledge, which is a list of billionaires who’ve pledged to donate half of their fortunes.
“I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give. No drive has more positive ripple effects than the desire to be of service,” she wrote in a letter. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”
Currently, Forbes reports that her net worth totals $28.2 billion.
$19+ billion is so much freaking money that it’s hard to even wrap my head around it. I wonder if she’ll end up giving money to initiatives that will help fill in for crucial programs that have been disbanded like USAID or start a program that provides free breakfasts and lunches to public school children. Helping keep the world safe and children fed? That will definitely piss off some of her fellow billionaires. How dare she care about those in need?!
I love that Mackenzie has used her divorce money for good and have nothing but respect for her. While every other billionaire is out there working it for tax breaks and the stock market, Mackenzie is genuinely trying to make a difference in the world. Imagine if there were more rich people like her. We’d be in a totally different place than we are now. Also, it’s kind of insane that a woman who is worth $28.2 billion is “only” at #68 on the Forbes billionaire list. That is f-cking wild.
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