Novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, whose ex-husband is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced Tuesday that she has already donated nearly $ 1.7 billion of her immense wealth in the past year. The causes and nonprofit organizations he has chosen so far include those that support racial, LGBTQ +, and gender equity, as well as those dedicated to fighting climate change and improving public health and economic mobility, among others. Scott has a net worth of more than $ 60 billion, thanks to recent gains in Amazon stock.
The announcement, made as part of a Medium post with Scott’s new name (taken from his middle name) after their divorce, comes after Scott signed The Giving Pledge last May. The campaign was launched in 2010 by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett to encourage the world’s richest people to donate most of their wealth throughout their lives. It currently has more than 200 signatories from almost two dozen countries.
Continuing with the commitment I made last year to give away the majority of my wealth in my life: https://t.co/Ocb8eU5UR1. (Note that my Medium account is under my new last name, changed back to the middle name I grew up with, after my grandfather Scott).
– MacKenzie Bezos (@mackenziebezos) July 28, 2020
“Last year I made a commitment to return most of my wealth to the society that helped generate it, to do it carefully, to start early, and to keep it until the safe is empty. I have no doubt that anyone’s personal wealth is the product of a collective effort and social structures that present opportunities for some people and obstacles for countless others, ”Scott writes in his Medium post.
Like many, I saw the first half of 2020 with a mix of heartbreak and horror. Life will never stop finding new ways to expose inequities in our systems; or wake up to the fact that such an unbalanced civilization is not only unfair, but also unstable, “he adds.” What fills me with hope is the idea of what will come if each of us reflects on what we can offer. ”
Here’s the breakdown of how Scott says he’s donated money so far:
Total delivered to date:
Racial Equity: $ 586,700,000
LGBTQ + Equity: $ 46,000,000
Gender Equity: $ 133,000,000
Economic mobility: $ 399,500,000
Bridge empathy and division: $ 55,000,000
Functional democracy: $ 72,000,000
Public health: $ 128,300,000
Global development: $ 130,000,000
Climate change: $ 125,000,000
“Last fall, I asked a team of nonprofit advisers with key representation from historically marginalized sexual, race and gender identity groups to help me find and evaluate organizations that have a major impact on a variety of causes.” , writes. “On this list, 91% of racial equity organizations are led by leaders of color, 100% of LGBTQ + equity organizations are led by LGBTQ + leaders, and 83% of gender equality organizations are led by women, bringing lived experience to solutions for unbalanced social systems. “The Medium post also contains a comprehensive list of the dozens of nonprofits Scott is contributing to.
Bezos remains the richest individual in the U.S., with a net worth of more than $ 180 billion even after his divorce, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The divorce, which allegedly stemmed from an affair Bezos had with newscaster Lauren Sanchez, gave Scott a quarter of Bezos’ properties on Amazon and immediately made her one of the wealthiest Americans and one of five richest women in the world.
Despite her wealth, which has only grown in recent months as Amazon has become a central service provider during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bezos is the only one of the five richest people in the US Who has not signed The Giving Pledge as of March 2020, Business Insider reports.
Bezos’ lack of philanthropic ambition, only further emphasized by Scott’s transparency and willingness to devote his fortune to nonprofits, has been a source of controversy over the years. The CEO polled Twitter in 2017 for recommendations on what he should do with his wealth, as he had previously donated very little and mostly poured portions of his billions to spare into his rocket company Blue Origin and The Washington Post.
Since then, Bezos has been more direct about his philanthropy plans. Those now include $ 2 billion, pledged in 2018, to combat homelessness and provide low-income families with educational opportunities through their Bezos Day One Fund and a $ 10 billion lifetime commitment made in February this year to combat climate change through the newly created Bezos Earth Fund.
