MacKenzie Scott is giving away her fortune at an unprecedented pace, donating more than $ 4 billion in four months after announcing an additional $ 1.7 billion in gifts in July.
The 18th richest person in the world with a net worth of $ 60.7 billion announced the latest gifts in a blog post, saying she asked her team to find out how to give away her fortune faster. Scott’s wealth is up $ 23.6 billion this year alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, like Amazon.com Inc, the main source of its fortune, has soared.
After considering nearly 6,500 organizations for potential contributions, her advisers eventually turned to 384 groups to receive gifts, Scott said in a statement. post on Medium.
“This pandemic is wrecking the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote. “Both the economic losses and the health outcomes are worse for women, for people of color and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has significantly increased the wealth of billionaires. “
The donations targeted groups “operating in communities with high food insecurity, high levels of racial inequality, high local poverty rates and low access to philanthropic capital.”
Make a promise
Scott, 50, who was previously married to Amazon’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, signed the Giving Pledge in 2019 and pledged to give away most of her fortune.
“I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” she says wrote in her promise. “My approach to philanthropy will remain thoughtful. It takes time, effort and care. But I’m not waiting. And I will continue until the safe is empty. “
The speed with which she gives it away contradicts many other philanthropists, despite being a relative newcomer.
“Other billionaires should draw inspiration from her approach to move funds to urgent needs, to historically marginalized groups, to share decision-making with the non-wealthy, and to avoid storage funds in private legacy foundations,” Chuck Collins, director of the program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, said in an email.
This year was also an active year for Bezos’ philanthropy. In February, he laid out $ 10 billion on issues related to climate change, and last month announced the first of those grants, totaling nearly $ 800 million for 16 groups. He also announced a new round of funding for his Day One Fund, donating more than $ 100 million to 42 organizations fighting homelessness among families.
Bezos, 56, held three-quarters of the couple’s Amazon stock in divorce, retaining his status as the world’s richest person with a net worth of $ 185 billion, according to the Bloomberg index. His net worth is up $ 70 billion this year.
(Updates with Scott’s comments from the fourth paragraph.)