MacKenzie Scott became the third richest woman on Earth in an instant and now, the billionaire pholanthropist is helping others achieve their dreams through charitable donations and grants. The former wife of Amazon's Jeff Bezos is giving away another $2.7 billion to 286 different groups.
Her gifts have gone to a wide array of organizations like Pittsburgh's Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Fund, Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, the Asian American Federation, the Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund, the National Equity Project, and Center of Life.
Scott is an overnight success story plucked straight out of a summer blockbuster plot. Her settlement from the 2019 divorce to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, after 35 years of marriage springboarded her into the public spotlight and created buzz across countless watercoolers.
With a staggering wealth of $193.5 billion, Bezos's fortune, while hit by the settlement, is still unbelievably high to fathom. Following his split to Scott, Jeff watched as his ex-wife's personal bank account ballooned to $59 billion.
Prior to the 2019 divorce, MacKenzie joined The Giving Pledge, a campaign created by Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Melinda Gates. This pledge pushed for the extremely wealthy among us to contribute the majority of their material wealth to philanthropic pursuits. Scott jumped into this concept with both feet.
Factoring in this latest round of givings, MackEnzie's philanthropy total now sits at over $8.5 Billion worth of donations in less than one calendar year. It is just another major moment for the former Mrs. Bezos over the previous 12 months as, in March, she married beau Dan Jewett.
In a blog post, Scott addressed her decision to pay things forward in the grandest fashion.
"People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating," she wrote on the Giving Pledge Website. "Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change."
Of course, large scale anything brings with it large scale scrutiny. Philanthropy experts have questioned the methods in which Scott chooses her grantees with some calling for higher levels of transparency while others question whether she's trying to counteract Amazon's influnce. Either way, one thing is certain. After only one year of massive donations, the future can mean anything for MacKenzie Scott. Her biggest checks might still be unwritten.
Sources: NY Times, Forbes, Giving Pledge, CNN
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