MacKenzie Scott: Historically, Black Universities Awarded Their Greatest Financial Gifts

07/30/2020 Business, World


MacKenzie Scott, formerly Bezos.

Howard University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Hampton University and Tuskegee University announced Tuesday that they had received record donations.

Howard, who received $ 40 million, Hampton, $ 30 million, and Tuskegee, $ 20 million, revealed that their donations came from Scott, the author and philanthropist who divorced Jeff Bezos from Amazon last year.

While Xavier University, which received $ 20 million, said its donor wished to remain anonymous, the school was named on Scott’s published list of 116 organizations that received a portion of their $ 1.7 billion collective donation.
Two other HBCUs, Morehouse College and Spelman College, also announced that they received generous donations from Scott.

Morehouse received a “generous donation” of $ 20 million, the university said in a press release. But D. Aileen Dodd, a spokeswoman for the school, told CNN it was not the largest donation the university received.

Spelman College did not disclose the amount of the donation or whether it was the largest in its history. CNN has reached out to Spelman College for more details.

MacKenzie Scott, formerly Bezos, says he has so far given away $ 1.7 billion of his wealth

All the presidents of the schools expressed their gratitude for the donation.

“I would like to thank Mrs. Mackenzie Scott for her investment in Howard University and our 153-year mission of serving a diverse community of dynamic scholars who come here for an education and leave here for the purpose of serving the world, “said the president of Howard University. Wayne AI Frederick said in a statement.

“We plan to immediately use this eight-figure gift to support the components of our 5-year strategic plan to help students graduate on time, retain our talented faculty, improve our campus infrastructure, and support academic innovation and Business spirit”.

Hampton University officials said they are looking for different options for the allocation of funds, such as student scholarships, technological advancements, or funds for the school’s Proton Therapy Institute, a cancer treatment center.

Tuskegee University President Lily D. McNair said the donation came at an “opportune time” as the school is about to launch a five-year strategic planning effort.

“We will be able to carry out the next phase of our mission in ways that we simply could not have considered before,” McNair said in a statement.
Xavier University officials also expressed their gratitude, describing the gift as “essential.”
Scott, whose net worth is currently estimated to be around $ 60 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, promised to give away most of his wealth in his lifetime by signing the Giving Pledge initiative last year.
She shared in a Medium post on Tuesday that she had already donated nearly $ 1.7 billion to a variety of organizations that focused on one of the nine “areas of need,” including racial equity, LGBTQ + equity, functional democracy. and climate change.

“I started working to fulfill my promise with the belief that my life had produced two assets that could be of particular value to others: the money these systems helped me deliver and the belief that people who have experience with inequalities they are the best equipped to design solutions, “Scott wrote in his post.

In addition to the six HBCUs, other organizations Scott donated to include Black Girls CODE, RAINN, the Obama Foundation, and the European Climate Foundation.

Meanwhile, Bezos, Scott’s ex-husband and the world’s richest man, has been previously criticized for not contributing more of his wealth to philanthropy. You have donated billions of dollars in recent years to causes including climate change and food banks, but you have not signed the Donation Pledge.

CNN’s Rishi Iyengar contributed to this report.

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