MacKenzie Scott announced she and her husband, Dan Jewett, will be donating just over $2.7 billion in gifts to 286 nonprofits and community organizations.
These gifts are the third tranche of donations from Scott in the last year and a half, after two combined sets of gifts for COVID relief, universities and other nonprofits in 2020 totaled $6 billion. Like her donations last year, Scott's gifts are made without restrictions on the way the money will be spent, and they don't come with any terms of control or oversight (unlike most major charitable contributions often made by foundations).
"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. Many reported that this trust significantly increased the impact of the gift," Scott wrote in a Medium post explaining the donations.
The recipients of these donations include higher-education institutions, interfaith organizations, community development nonprofits and groups working to reduce global poverty, among others. They were selected through a process of analysis intended to identify high-impact, underfunded equity-focused organizations.
While Scott is giving away her wealth at an unprecedented pace for individual donors (and even for major foundations), her own net worth continues to grow, hovering just below $60 billion in 2021.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE