- In 2024, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave away $2 billion to nearly 200 organizations, largely focused on economic security, housing affordability, job stability, child development and postsecondary education, and health care.
One of the most generous—and most mysterious—philanthropists of 2024 was MacKenzie Scott, author and billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
This year, she gave away a total of $2 billion to nearly 200 organizations across the U.S. That brings her five-year total of philanthropic gifts to more than $19 billion. While a hefty figure, that’s still just a drop in the bucket of the giving potential she has. Forbes estimates Scott’s net worth at $31.6 billion as of Thursday, and she’s continued selling off the shares of Amazon stock she acquired in her divorce from Bezos in 2023. Scott, 54, reportedly sold more than 45 million Amazon shares worth nearly $8.4 billion in mid-November.
While Scott has undoubtedly become one of the most generous philanthropists in modern history, she also has a unique way of distributing her wealth. Often, organizations are awarded millions of dollars by complete surprise. For example, one organization quietly received a $10 million donation from Scott in September, and thought the email notifying them of the gift was spam or a phishing email, Grace Fricks, president and CEO of Cleveland, Ga.–based Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE), told Fortune.
Scott’s unique philanthropic style
Other organizations that have received funding from Scott have been similarly surprised by her donations. In October, nonprofit community loan fund Housing Trust Silicon Valley received a whopping $30 million gift from Scott. This was the largest donation from an individual the organization had ever received.
The donation “came as an incredible surprise,” Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust, told Fortune. “Housing Trust did not actively seek out funding from her.”
Scott’s philanthropic approach is also unique in the fact that it’s “trust-based,” Ramos said, meaning many of her gifts are unrestricted, or can be used how the beneficiary sees fit.
“Unlike traditional funding processes that often involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements, her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,” Ramos said. “It also allows us the opportunity to pivot and meet changing needs when necessary.”
Another affordable housing nonprofit, Century Housing, had a similar experience when it received a $15 million donation from Scott in November 2023, in that it was both an “unexpected yet greatly appreciated surprise for the organization,” a spokesperson for Century Housing told Fortune, and funds were unrestricted.
UnidosUS, a nonprofit Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, received surprise funding from Scott in 2020, its senior vice president for economic initiatives, Laura Arce, told Fortune. The donation’s unrestricted nature gave the organization “flexibility to think big and long term, in this case launching a 10-year goal toward transformational economic change for the Latino community,” Arce said. The donation was used toward the HOME initiative to help more Latinos become homeowners.
This year, through her funding platform, Yield Giving, Scott held an open call for applications for gifts, one of which was received by the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH) in March. The health-equity organization received a $2 million donation to support its community health education programs and research initiatives. One of the differentiators in Yield Giving’s open-call process was that applications were peer-reviewed, Marilyn Fraser, CEO of AAIUH, told Fortune.
“It was interesting not only to see the great work other organizations are doing, but to potentially be introduced to other opportunities for collaboration with similar-minded nonprofits,” Fraser said.
Causes Scott cares about
Scott has donated to hundreds of organizations over the past few years, which run the gamut in terms of missions and industries. However, her donations this year show through lines in a handful of select areas.
In 2024, about 75% of the organizations to which Scott donated are nonprofits that support economic security, housing affordability, job stability, child development and postsecondary education, health care, financial counseling, business coaching, and low-interest loans that encourage wealth-building, Scott noted in an essay published Wednesday on the Yield Giving website.
Ken Lombard, president and CEO of Bridge Housing, said Scott’s $8 million donation to his affordable housing nonprofit illustrates her clear understanding “that affordable housing is the foundation of healthy communities and enables life-changing opportunities for families and individuals.” That’s on the West Coast, home to many of the costliest housing markets in the U.S., he added.
The remaining 25% of Scott’s gifts in 2024 went to “support[ing] well-being through other means, such as work on human rights and natural resources conservation,” Scott wrote. “I’m inspired by all the ways people invest in each other.”
Scott also said in her post that she and her investment team are planning to begin investing in for-profit companies focused on those same core mission areas.
When Scott makes gifts, instead of withdrawing funds from a bank account or stock portfolio that increases the wealth and influence of leaders who already have it, she wants to “withdraw them from a portfolio of investments in mission-aligned ventures.”
“In this way, the money can help address these issues twice,” Scott wrote. These donations help “first by advancing economic mobility and unlocking the innovation and social benefit that comes from incorporating diverse needs and perspectives in the world being constructed around us, and next in the hands of experienced nonprofit teams creating value through their transformative models of care and change.”
Here is a sampling of some of the largest gifts made by Scott in 2024 and their recipients’ respective causes, according to data published on Yield Giving:
- Enterprise Community Partners, $65 million; affordable housing
- Local Initiatives Support Corporation, $65 million; affordable housing, economic development, education, wealth building, and more
- Self-Help Ventures Fund, $60 million; nonprofit loan fund
- Housing Development Fund, $60 million; affordable housing
- Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical Debt), $50 million; medical debt relief
- Grameen America, $50 million; women entrepreneurs
- Southern Partners Fund, $50 million; Southeast rural communities
- Camfed International, $50 million; female education
- Lever for Change, $36 million; racial inequity, gender inequality, access to economic opportunity, and climate change
