MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced that she’s making a new round of donations to charity.
MacKenzie, who is now married to Dan Jewett after her 25-year-old marriage to Amazon CEO crashed, made the announcement Tuesday, June 14, in a Medium blog post.
Scott and her husband Dan Jewett, donated $2.74 billion to 286 organizations that focus on the arts and combating racial discrimination.
This marks Scott’s third major round of donations. She gave away nearly $6 billion in 2020 to 500 organizations. Scott is also a signee of the Giving Pledge, promising to give away half of her fortune to charitable causes during her lifetime, or after her death.
This mostrecent donation brings her givings to more than $8.5 billion worth of donations in less than a year.
Detailing the recipients of her latest donation, MacKenzie Scott wrote: “Sitting down to write this post, I felt stuck. I want to de-emphasize privileged voices and cede focus to others, yet I know some media stories will focus on wealth.”
Scott, who is the 22nd richest person in the world, says she focused her latest donations on higher education, groups bridging divides through interfaith support, arts and culture, anti-poverty organizations led by people of color and grassroots groups supporting local communities.
She said she wanted to give the money to those “that have been historically underfunded and overlooked.”
