As CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Anne Marie Dougherty has encountered a lot of high-net-worth individuals and how they approach philanthropy. But few are like MacKenzie Scott, Dougherty told Fortune.
Scott’s signature philanthropic style is giving unrestricted gifts—a rarity in the industry. It means organizations who receive a gift from the billionaire philanthropist, novelist, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos can use the donation how they see fit. That style contrasts with many other high-profile donors, who put conditions like donation-matching or performance goals around gifts. This can lead to confusion and delays in putting the money to use.
Since 2020, Scott has donated more than $20 billion, making her one of the most generous philanthropists, alongside Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett. According to her foundation, Yield Giving, she’s donated more than $19.25 billion, but that doesn’t even reflect this year’s gifts. This fall alone, she’s donated hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations focused on DEI, education, and disaster recovery.
“She practices trust-based philanthropy,” Dougherty said of Scott, who donated $15 million to the veteran-focused nonprofit organization in 2022, and made a subsequent $20 million donation this fall. The $15 million gift was the largest in history at the organization, which was founded in 2006—the same year military reporter Bob Woodruff was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The foundation was cofounded by Woodruff and his family to provide support for injured service members, veterans, and their families.
With that initial $15 million gift, the Bob Woodruff Foundation was able to establish a three-year plan to invest an additional 20% each year for the past three years in programming.
“There were a couple things we did not do,” Dougherty explained. “We did not establish an endowment, we did not hire a bunch of people, we did not buy real estate, open up an office, anything like that. We just increased our grant making.”
This proved to be the “right choice” with how to spend Scott’s initial gift, Dougherty said, because it showed Scott’s organization, Yield Giving, the Bob Woodruff Foundation could absorb the capital of another gift and increase impact.
Unrestricted giving
The hallmark of Scott’s giving style is making unrestricted gifts. The vast majority of her gifts that have been made public by the organizations to which she donates are unrestricted.
That comes after a thorough due diligence process, though, Dougherty said. That included sharing information such as the organization’s strategic plan, audited financials, business plans, organization chart, and grant-making process.
This also means after the donation was received, Scott’s organization was hands-off—however, Yield Giving has made calls to former recipients to ask for referrals for other organizations to which they should donate, Dougherty said.
“It was a great opportunity for us to pay it forward,” Dougherty said. “So we put together a list of organizations that we really believe in that are smaller in scale, but really having an impact, and we sent that through. But otherwise, the name of the game was just to make an impact, and we did that.”
Scott has made countless other unrestricted gifts recently—including a record-breaking $80 million gift to Howard University and a $70 million donation to UNCF, the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships to Black students. She also recently made unrestricted gifts to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund ($40 million) and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy ($60 million).
“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,” Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, told Fortune in late 2024, when her organization received a $30 million gift from Scott.