MacKenzie Scott, philanthropist, author, and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is married to a science teacher in Seattle. Dan Jewett announced this on Saturday in a letter to the website of the non-profit organization the Giving Pledge.
Jewett said he never thought in his lifetime he could talk about giving away significant wealth to make a difference in other people’s lives. He expressed his gratitude “for the exceptional privilege it will be to work together in giving away resources that have the potential to do so much good when shared.”
Jewett has been a teacher for decades and most recently taught chemistry at the private Lakeside School, where Scott’s children attended.
The promise to give
“And now, by chance, I am married to one of the most generous and kind people I know – and join her to pass on tremendous financial wealth to serve others,” Jewett wrote.
After donating $ 1.68 billion to 116 nonprofits, universities, community development groups and legal organizations in July, Scott asked a team of advisers to help her accelerate her 2020 donation with immediate assistance to those who were financially disturbed by the pandemic.
Scott went on to donate a total of $ 5.7 billion in 2020 by asking community leaders to help identify 512 organizations for seven- and eight-figure gifts, including food banks, human-service organizations, and racial justice charities.
According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual rankings, she was ranked second out of 50 Americans who gave the most to charities last year.
Bezos topped the list by donating $ 10 billion to launch the Bezos Earth Fund.
Scott announced a flurry of charitable gifts in a December post on Medium, writing that she was inspired by the base’s efforts to help those in need, such as community fridges and “ makeshift Venmo gifts person-to-person ‘. Scott said she started by looking at 6,490 organizations, then narrowed down her list to 384 organizations with “high potential for impact.”
Many of those organizations, such as food banks, provide for basic needs, while others focus on what Scott called “long-term systemic inequalities” exacerbated by the crisis. Among the beneficiaries:
- More than 40 Feeding America food banks, ranging from the Central California Food Bank to the Vermont Foodbank
- More than 40 Goodwill affiliates including Goodwill Hawaii and Goodwill of the Heartland
- 30 programs from Meals on Wheels, such as Meals on Wheels South Florida and Meals on Wheels Atlanta
- Educational institutions including Lehman College of the City University of New York and Morgan State University in Baltimore
“We shared all of our donation decisions with the program leaders over the phone for the first time and they welcomed them to spend the money on what they believe will best serve their efforts,” she wrote. “The responses from people who took the calls often included personal stories and tears.”
Aimee Picchi contributed to this report.