MacKenzie Scott says she has given away $3.9 billion to 465 nonprofits in the last 9 months, raising her total to $12.5 billion since she pledged to give away most of her fortune
- Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott just announced another major round of donations.
- Scott, who is Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, says she has donated $3.86 billion to 465 nonprofits since June.
MacKenzie Scott has announced another round of donations as part of her pledge to give away her billions.
Scott, one of the world's richest women and the ex-wife of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated $3.86 billion to 465 nonprofits since her last major giving spree announcement in June, she said in a blog post Wednesday.
"Our team's focus over these last nine months has included some new areas, but as always our aim has been to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds," Scott wrote in the Medium post. "The cause of equity has no sides."
The groups receiving the donations operate in a wide range of areas, including education, housing, health, Ukraine relief efforts, and more. Some recipients include the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Planned Parenthood, and Habitat for Humanity.
Of the 465 nonprofits, roughly 60% are led by women, and 75% are helmed by "people with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address."
"The leadership of people directly experiencing inequities is essential, both because it is informed by insights no one else can contribute, and because it seeds power and opportunity within the community itself," Scott wrote.
With the newest round, Scott has made a total of 1,257 donations since signing the Giving Pledge in May 2019 following her divorce from Bezos, she wrote in her post. The pledge involves participants committing to give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetimes or in their wills.
The latest addition also brings her total for philanthropic giving since signing the pledge to $12.5 billion. In June, she announced donations totaling $2.74 billion to 286 organizations so far in 2021. In December 2020, Scott revealed she gave $4.16 billion to 384 organizations in the four months prior. Earlier that year, in July, Scott said she had donated $1.7 billion to 116 organizations.
Through the divorce settlement, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon, which was worth roughly $38 billion at the time. Her net worth topped $60 billion at one point when Amazon shares climbed in 2020. Scott's current net worth is $48.9 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Forbes.