MacKenzie Scott attends the SEAN PENN J/P HRO GALA: A Gala Dinner to Benefit J/P Haitian Relief Organization and a Coalition of Disaster Relief Organizations at Milk Studios on January 6, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
It's the season of giving, and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott just announced she's handed out more than $2 billion to 199 different organizations this year.
That brings the total amount donated by Scott since 2019 to $19.2 billion, based on her past public announcements of her charitable giving. Forbes still estimates a $31.6 billion net worth for Scott, who became one of the world's wealthiest women following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon in the divorce settlement.
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Much of this latest round of donations went to organizations focused on alleviating poverty, Scott wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
"Roughly 75% of them are non-profits that support the economic security and opportunity of people who are struggling," she wrote, adding that the organizations offer services ranging from access to affordable housing, healthcare and financial counseling to child development and post-secondary education.
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Other organizations that received gifts from Scott focus on areas like "human rights and natural resources conservation," she wrote.
In 2019, not long after her divorce settlement, Scott signed The Giving Pledge and committed to giving away the majority of her wealth in her lifetime. Since then, she's routinely ranked on Forbes' list of the most generous billionaires, giving away roughly one-third of her net worth, according to the publication's most recent list, published in February.
One goal of her philanthropy is "to de-emphasize privileged voices" such as her own, "and cede focus to others," she wrote in a 2021 blog post.
Money Report
"People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating," she wrote at the time. "This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth."
In that same vein, Scott has tasked her investment advisors with identifying "funds and companies focused on for-profit solutions to these challenges" she tries to address through her philanthropy, Scott wrote on Wednesday.
In doing so, Scott would be following in the footsteps of other notable billionaire philanthropists who have embraced what's known as "impact investing." That includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Strategic Investment Fund, which focuses on the global health space, and Walmart heir Lukas Walton, whose Builders Vision investing and philanthropy platform shifted 90% of its billion-dollar endowment into impact investments in 2022.
For Scott, the goal is make a difference by investing with funds and companies offering solutions to societal issues before she takes her returns and donates them to non-profit organizations.
"When I make gifts, rather than withdrawing funds from a bank account, or from a stock portfolio that increases the wealth and influence of leaders who already have it, I'd like to withdraw them from a portfolio of investments in mission-aligned ventures, with leaders from the populations they are serving, or from generally undercapitalized groups like women and people of color," Scott wrote.
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