Change happens from the bottom up, and also the top down.. Charitable groups applauded the unconditional nature of Ms. Scotts gifts. For a complete list of grant recipients, see Scotts Medium post. MacKenzie Scott promised she would give her fortune away until the safe is empty. That has proved to be harder than expected. "Though this work is ongoing and will last for years," she wrote, "I'm posting an update today because my own reflection after recent events revealed a dividend of privilege I'd been overlooking: the attention I can call to organizations and leaders driving change.". Ms. Scott, who declined to comment, rocketed to public attention with the announcement nearly two years ago that she and Mr. Bezos were divorcing. Scotts June 15 post was the most detailed explanation of her philanthropic philosophy to date (attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change) and gently chided the news media for paying more attention to her wealth than to the organizations receiving money. MacKenzie Scott's 2020 giving outstripped the over $5 billion in grants given by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2019. Morgan State University, a historically Black public college in Baltimore that traces its roots to the year 1867, has always struggled financially. Through a streamlined operation, Ms. Scott has given away $6 billion this year, much of it to small charities and nonprofits. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. But the moment Rodriguez was waiting for came two weeks ago, when Scott donated $11 million to the group. Who Can Apply for a Grant? Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter examines how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of todays executives. As she reached adulthood, Rodriguez says she realized that all parts of the creative industryHollywood, museums, dance, televisionwere run by white men holding all the power and financing. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP A new MacKenzie Scott Opportunity Scholarship Fund, set to launch this year, is expected to yield an estimated $400,000 per year in new funding for scholarships. Shaw. Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $2.7 billion to hundreds of charities and organizations. Not only are nonprofits chronically underfunded, they are also chronically diverted from their work by fund-raising and by burdensome reporting requirements that donors often place on them, Ms. Scott wrote. LinkedIn has officially entered its cringe era, and its working. (Editor's note: The amount of money transferred into Lehman College's endowment has been changed based on updated information provided by the college.) As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Feel free to contact us anytime. Gloria C. MacKenzie Foundation Seeks Grantees If your organization is interested in applying for a grant, we invite you to proceed with our grant application process. This highlights the need to give organizations the freedom to build muscle for resilience, as they see fit. The Scott R. MacKenzie Foundation grants funding for genome research in order to advance cures. The choices, experiences, and reflections of Scotts global grant recipients provide valuable insights to understand where global development aid has fallen short and how to improve philanthropy in order to advance systems change. A representative for MacKenzie Scottcurrently the worlds 19th richest person with a net worth of $59 billionhad a message to deliver. And while that rate is breaking records, Scott needs her giving machine to work faster, because the stock she holds in Amazon has rocketed in value from $23.6 billion this year to $60.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index . We learned that organizations navigated tough decisions around saving vs. spending balancing the need to create financial sustainability vehicles, such as endowments and setting funds aside for innovation, alongside urgent spending to attend to growing needs amid the pandemic. Offers may be subject to change without notice. MacKenzie Scott has unveiled a website to provide more transparency around her philanthropic efforts. MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is shown here in 2018. On Wednesday, Scotts team published a long-promised website with details about her philanthropy, including a database of the donations she has made since 2020. Scott also won praise from philanthropy experts for the way she donated her money: without strings attached. "Their gift enables us to increase our impact for generations of students and inspires others to invest in building the future of America," he wrote. Scott donated to two organizations combatting addiction: $5 million to Shatterproof and $3 million to Young People in Recovery. Another education nonprofit, Leading Educators, got $10 million to provide professional development for teachers. On a Monday evening in November, Dorri McWhorter, the chief executive of the Y.W.C.A. Much as a judge has to explain their logic, or a senator has to answer to their constituents, a philanthropist owes it to the public to explain how and why they came to their decisions.. Please note: Mackenzie Charitable Foundation do not make grants to individuals. All completed Initial Grant Applications must be submitted by April 30 for consideration in that year. ", MacKenzie Scott Has Donated More Than $4 Billion In Last 4 Months. During the Covid-19 pandemic, MacKenzie Scott accompanied three rounds of billion-dollar donations to hundreds of organizations with separate announcements elaborating on her philanthropic approach. She had three children from her former marriage and they adopted one girl from China. Get some sleep," Scott suggested. Feasibility studies for capital campaigns. Each nonprofit it will list was selected through a rigorous process, and has a strong track record of serving under-supported needs. But during a deep recession and an era of epic inequality, the traditional approach has fueled criticisms that foundations are more interested in preserving themselves than in helping those in desperate need. Over the course of 2020, MacKenzie Scott announced grants totaling almost $6 billion. After divorcing the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, she signed the Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to give away the bulk of her share of the Amazon fortune. She refers to a team of advisers rather than a large dedicated staff. People-centered measures for recruitment and staff wellness, training, and retention. Documenting their founding principles and values. Intentionally communicating about evolving organizational norms in both directions between leadership and staff. Creating space for fostering staff agency, risk-taking and ideas generation among both the board of directors and staff. (I'm still chuckling at the image for the year 2014 when the Bezoses donated a total of $2.25 million to fund clinical food allergy . She noted that she had made unsolicited and unexpected gifts given with full trust and no strings attached. Such strings are a mainstay of modern philanthropy: onerous grant proposals and nerve-racking site visits, followed by reports on the variety of performance benchmarks that charities are required to meet to keep the money flowing. Ms. McWhorter shed tears of joy on the call. MacKenzie Scott, the reclusive billionaire who has in three years donated upwards of $14 billion to more than 1,600 nonprofits, may start accepting applications from would-be recipients. It works on two levels!). MacKenzie Scott in 2018. Dance Theater of Harlem, which received $10 million, said the gift was the largest in its history. A gift like this for a nonprofit is equivalent to a billion dollars, Accion chief executive Luz Urrutia told Forbes. Ms. Scott is under no obligation to publicly disclose anything about her giving. In each post, Scott includes a short essay explaining her view on philanthropy alongside the list of groups receiving funds. But the $2.74 billion. Power deserves scrutiny.. Corporate events, the companys bread and butter, dried up overnight. Though this kind of giving isnt new, Scott (and possibly Melinda French Gates) is putting a spotlight on trust-based philanthropy, which seeks to address the power imbalances between wealthy funders and nonprofits. MacKenzie Scott details recipients of recent awards, Habitat for Humanity receives $436 million from MacKenzie Scott, Boys & Girls Clubs of America receives $281 million gift, National 4-H Council receives $50 million from MacKenzie Scott, MacKenzie Scott announces recipients of $1.67 billion in grants, MacKenzie Scott launches giving website, details charitable process, Mormon Church obscured control of $32 billion portfolio, SEC finds, Applications and funding surge at HBCUs following racial reckoning, Citi Foundation launches $25 million food security initiative, Community-based efforts to reduce gun violence launched in four cities, Carnegie Mellon, Rales Foundation launch $150 million STEM initiative. Staff capacity, sound fiscal policy and responsible financial management. Scott is currently worth about $21.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. Her work focuses on supporting social entrepreneurs and social change leaders to implement their work through fiscal sponsorship and other partnership models, and co-leading efforts to deepen learning and knowledge sharing across the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. In order to be eligible, you must: be a qualified recipient that is a tax exempt US organization with a charitable purpose stated under section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. In giving away her billions so rapidly, Ms. Scott continues to chip away at the philanthropic status quo, which is dominated by big foundations with large program staffs that select grantees and manage the donations. chapters. The recipients span from institutions of higher education and arts and culture, to organizations fighting poverty, working on interfaith issues and building community engagement. MacKenzie Scott announced on Tuesday her second major charitable contribution of the year, giving away nearly $4.2 billion to 384 organizations as part of a plan to donate a majority of her fortune. Organizations where person(s) are excluded from employment, volunteer participation, or agency services because of age, gender, race, national origin, religious beliefs and background, physical abilities, disability, sexual orientation, economic circumstances, and any other characteristic protected by law. Many only barely meet that requirement, instead hoarding their cash and giving away less than the profits they earn through investments. Shes not putting herself in the drivers seat., MacKenzie Scott Gives Away Another $2.74 Billion Even as Her Wealth Grows, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html. When I got off the phone I had to collect myself, says Morgan President David Wilson. The article also notes that Bezos and Scott tend to differ in how they donate their money. Forbes takes the position that people with billions of dollars at their disposal warrant more scrutiny than average Americans because of the power that money wields. But two days later, after widespread criticism over this diminished transparency, Scott backpedaledand promised that her team was developing an online database of her gifts. In her blog post, Scott describes systemic societal inequities and her belief that giving money to organizations directly working with communities in need is the way her wealth can be put to use, saying that she, her husband and her staff and advisers "are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change. Though her net worth now exceeds the value of the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest charity in the world, Ms. Scott has shown no interest in developing that kind of formal structure around her giving. Understanding of and ability to describe the relationship between the proposed project and other services, and service providers within the community. $15M MacKenzie Scott grant helps vision sector out of a blind spot, As MacKenzie Scott donates $3.9B, one grantee expresses ambivalence, Global nonprofits among grantees in MacKenzie Scott's $2.7B donation. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott in 2018. [It] will go live only after it reflects the preferences of every one of these nonprofit teams about how details of their gifts are shared., We look forward to sharing the work of these remarkable organizations through this database of their gifts, 1257 to date since my pledge to give away this money with steadiness and care, Scott wrote. This system forces them to constantly fundraise and use a patchwork approach to finance their missions, rather than letting them focus on accomplishing those missions. After deeper research into 822 of them, she and her advisers selected 384 groups to receive nearly $4.2 billion in funds. In ablog post, Scott whose divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly left her with Amazon stock valued at more than $35 billion and whotweetedon Tuesday that she would begin using her middle name as her last name wrote that she had been working with nonprofit advisors from historically marginalized race, gender, and sexual identity groups to help identify and evaluate potential grantees. The billionaire philanthropist has so far given away more than $8 billion of her fortune in three rounds of funding. She doesnt appear to have an office or even a mailing address for her philanthropy, instead working through nonprofit firm Bridgespan. The MacKenzie Scott Opportunities Scholarship (S.O.S) will assist first-time, credential-seeking, young adults under age 25 attend college. She said she hoped to de-emphasize privileged voices and cede focus to others.. "We are so grateful for MacKenzie Bezos' support of our work to empower LGBTQ students and springboard a new generation of LGBTQ leaders toward success," said Jorge Valencia, executive director and CEO of the Point Foundation, the nation's largest LGBTQ scholarship fund. MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos) has announced the recipients of $1.67 billion in grants awarded since she signed the Giving Pledge fourteen months ago. Scott's post lists all the recipients but doesn't state the amount of money they've been granted. The money hit the street, he says. Terms & Conditions. (Rudolphs series-finale declaration that we are the problem; billionaires shouldnt exist lands like a TV-pithy version of Scotts first essay about her donations: Theres no question in my mind that anyones personal wealth is the product of a collective effort, and of social structures which present opportunities to some people, and obstacles to countless others.). General operating support for organizations. Severalglobal south recipients used the grant to hone the message that they are the experts and could stop working as subcontractors on the ground under the large INGOs that otherwise often get the big grants. If he needs some pointers on how to have a meaningful impact with his gigantic fortune, he could do a lot worse than to take a few tips from his ex. She has so far given away more than $8 billion in three rounds of funding revealed in the same manner. But the $2.74 billion in gifts, announced just six months after that windfall, firmly establishes her as the most generous and influential philanthropist working today. Similar scenes were playing out at charities nationwide. Scott alluded to her thinking behind helping groups helping others in her latest Medium post, writing, We believe that teams with experience on the front lines of challenges will know best how to put the money to good use. Ultimately, Urrutia says, Scotts philanthropy sends the message that you and your team know how to best deploy the dollars.. Two groups focusing on reproductive rights, the Guttmacher Institute and the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity, received $15 million and $25 million respectively. In the last few years, they have ramped up attention to organizational culture and health to achieve maximum organizational impact. Scotts windfall grants have few or no strings attached and center on race, gender, equity, and localized decision-making. Exceptions may be made for religious organizations who can demonstrate bona fide occupational qualifications based on religious belief for employment and volunteer participation. To subscribe, select any of the newsletters listed below. In her post on Medium, she explained that her team's focus, which includes new areas, has been "to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds." | Chattanooga Web Design by Strafire. Scott noted that all were awarded general operating support grants but did not disclose individual grant amounts. Ms. Scott is working on her giving with the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit organization in Boston that advises charities and philanthropies, including those set up by Mr. Gates and Michael Bloomberg, as well as the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. Instead of traditional in-person corporate events, The Red Door began to provide food for virtual conferences by making at-home deliveries to attendees in the Bay Area. Chef Reign Free received support to keep her catering business afloat during the pandemic due to Scott's philanthropy. Women-led, Black women-led organizations tend to be at the very bottom of the pile for philanthropists, Ms. McWhorter said. In a break from the way many foundations operate, Ms. Scott said her gifts were not earmarked for specific programs. "Bezos' support comes at a critical moment as we broaden and deepen our efforts to support LGBTQ students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color and LGBTQ students who are grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Editor's Note: This article was updated on February 19, 2022 to include two additional donations, to Shatterproof and Young People in Recovery. Shes moved extraordinary sums out the door, quickly, in an anti-paternalistic way, said Rob Reich, co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford. Scotts July 2020 giving could not have come at a better time for Accion Opportunity Fund, a small business loan provider in California focusing on women and Black-owned businesses. We have to accelerate. Groups across the country have received funds, and in a variety of areas: public health, education, the arts, racial equity, climate change and economic mobility, to name just a few. The scholarship is need based and will fund up to $2,000 per student. historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges. Here are some deeper insights from our pilot cohort of Scott grant recipients for the global development sector: Global recipient organizations are redefining the notion of scale and increasing impact by reaching more people in ways that give communities greater agency. Scotts operations have been largely shrouded in secrecy: A writer who calls herself a private person, she and her team refuse all interview requests. She gave surprise gifts totaling $410 million to historically Black colleges and universities in December 2020 alone, adding to the nearly $6 billion she gave away last year. MacKenzie. Ms. Scott made a new round of grants, to 286 organizations. They are sworn to secrecy at first but are allowed to talk about the money once Ms. Scotts latest letter is posted. Like the $4 billion Scott gave to 384 organizations in the last four months of 2020, the donations are unrestricted, so recipients can use the money as they see fit. Mackenzie Investments Charitable Foundation grants in 2018: $801,000 35 charities received grants in 2018 Largest grant to a partner charity in 2018: $50,000 Our Partner Charities The Foundation focuses on giving high-impact grants to charities across the country, with a special focus on organizations that help children and youth at risk. We want to invest it over decades.. The billionaire philanthropist has so far given away more than $8 billion of her fortune in three rounds of funding. Once a saver, always a saver: Warren Buffett says generational wealth isnt what it used to be in his annual letter Its bigger than the housing crisis: An influential economist just blamed NIMBYs for American decline, and Elon Musk CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. She has swiftly followed through, and by 2021 had become the third most generous U.S. philanthropist on paper. "These are people who have spent years successfully advancing humanitarian aims, often without knowing whether there will be any money in their bank . MacKenzie Scott has unveiled a website to provide more transparency around her philanthropic efforts. Free was forced to lay off employees. Learn more Adolescent Learning More surprisingly, the operation (which the website calls Yield Giving) also announced that Scott will allow nonprofits to formally apply for her gifts in the future, through what it calls an open-call process. 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