This Is How Jeff Bezos' Ex MacKenzie Scott Has Donated $12 Billion
Noted billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has held true to her promise to give away much of the $46.7 billion she was worth at the time of her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, as Vanity Fair reports. Some estimates now put her wealth at $57 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth. At the time she split with Bezos, Scott also received 4% of Amazon's share, per New York Post. At the time of this writing, most of Scott's total charitable contributions so far have gone to non-profit organizations in the U.S. and abroad, with special interest given to women-led organizations.
Scott announces her charitable giving through a Medium blog post, as she declines most media interviews (per ABC News). Although specific dollar amounts given to specific organizations were not announced by Scott, a few individual organizations did choose to reveal how much money they received from Scott. Most recently, she's given close to $3.9 billion to nearly 500 non-profit organizations. In total, Scott has given away about $12 billion in charitable donations since she split from Jeff Bezos. Here's where just some of that money was spent.
Habitat for Humanity
According to ABC News, Habitat for Humanity International and its 84 affiliate organizations have received $436 million from MacKenzie Scott. That's the biggest gift Scott and her new husband Dan Jewett, whom she married in 2021, have given so far (via Evening Standard). Scott signed The Giving Pledge in 2019, and Jewett did the same shortly thereafter. According to their own website, Habitat for Humanity is a U.S. nonprofit and non-governmental organization that works to improve housing conditions for underprivileged populations all over the world.
This gift is in keeping with Scott's pledge to give her money to groups that support populations "whose voices have been underrepresented," as she explained in her post. (via CNBC). Scott also wrote in her post that her team's focus 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. "The cause of equity has no sides. Nor can it have a single solution," she said. "We could not be more excited to get the gift at a time when, in some ways, the state of housing affordability is the worst that it has been in modern times," Habitat for Humanity told the AP in a statement (via New York Post).
Planned Parenthood
The next largest donation that Mackenzie Scott announced went to Planned Parenthood and 21 Planned Parenthood affiliate organizations. The total amount given by Scott came to $275 million, per ABC News. Per Planned Parenthood's website, they are a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving reproductive health and healthcare access for men, women, and children in the U.S. and worldwide. There are more than 600 planned Parenthood locations in the U.S. (via Planned Parenthood).
This large charitable donation also illustrates Scott's dedication to organizations representing the needs of women and girls, as the wealthy philanthropist wrote in her post, "Supporting 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 said. As ABC News also reports, more than half of all organizations Scott has donated to through her foundation are led by women.
Emergency response in Ukraine
HIAS, a Jewish international aid organization, also received a sizable donation from Scott, according to ABC News. Scott's donation to HIAS equaled $10 million, or a quarter of the $40 million HIAS hopes to raise for emergency response in Ukraine following Russia's invasion, according to the report. An estimated 3.3 million Ukrainians have been displaced in the conflict, many of which are from otherwise marginalized communities. Russia's military action in Ukraine has been especially hard on women and children, many of whom have become refugees, as MSNBC reports.
In response to Scott's donation, Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, prepared a statement. "HIAS has been working in independent Ukraine for over 20 years, working with Ukrainians and launching a Ukrainian-led organization (Right to Protection, R2P) to protect and welcome asylum seekers from other countries as well as displaced Ukrainians themselves," Hetfield said (per ABC News).
Healthcare reform
The final organization that MacKenzie Scott's foundation donated money to is a healthcare reform organization out of Boston called Community Catalyst. That gift from Scott equaled $25 million, according to ABC News. In total, 75% of Scott's giving went to organizations led by people "with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address," she wrote in her blog post. Other organizations that Scott has donated money to include Children's Defense Fund and the National Council of Nonprofits, as Forbes reports.
Overall, 1257 organizations have received money from Scott since she signed The Giving Pledge. MacKenzie Scott remains one of the richest women in the world, and by signing the pledge, she committed to giving half of her wealth away to charity over her lifetime, according to CNBC. For his part, Scott's ex-husband and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos remains the second richest person in the world, currently behind Tesla founder Elon Musk (via Investopedia). The former Amazon CEO has given an estimated $1 billion away to charity, according to Forbes.