Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced Tuesday that she donated $640 million to 361 nonprofits.
Ms. Scott, who was formerly married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, more than doubled the amount she initially pledged to give away through an open call for applications. She established Yield Giving as a vehicle for her philanthropic efforts, and the website tracks her contributions.
Yield Giving’s first round of donations, ranging from $1 million to $2 million, were awarded to various nonprofits across the nation. The recipients were selected from a “pool of over 6,000 applicants,” Ms. Scott wrote in a brief message on the website.
In 2019, she vowed to give away at least half of her wealth to charity. Since then, she and her team have researched and selected organizations without an application process and provided them with large, unrestricted gifts.
Ms. Scott said she was grateful to Lever for Change, which managed the open call, and the teams for “their roles in creating this pathway to support for people working to improve access to foundational resources in their communities. They are vital agents of change.”
Open Call for Funding
In March 2023, Ms. Scott announced the $250 million open call for “community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles,” according to Lever for Change.The invitation that initially planned to award $1 million each to 250 organizations drew 6,353 applicants.
“In light of the incredible work of these organizations, as judged by their peers and external panelists, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount,” said Lever for Change, which specializes in running philanthropic prize awards.
Ms. Scott awarded $2 million each to 279 nonprofits that received top scores from the external review panel, while 82 organizations in the second tier received $1 million each.
Competitions such as Ms. Scott’s open call can help organizations without connections to specific funders, said Renee Karibi-Whyte, senior vice president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
“One of the best things about prize philanthropy is that it surfaces people and organizations and institutions that otherwise wouldn’t have access to the people in the power centers and the funding,” she said.
Ms. Karibi-Whyte’s organization also advises funders who run competitive grants or philanthropic prize competitions to phase the application to diminish the burden of applying on any organization that is eliminated early.
“In a world teeming with potential and talent, the Open Call has given us an opportunity to identify, uplift, and empower transformative organizations that often remain unseen,” Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change, said in a statement.
Ms. Scott has given away at least $16.5 billion of the fortune she acquired after her divorce from Mr. Bezos. She started out publicizing her gifts in online blog posts, at times naming the recipients and sometimes not.
