MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced Tuesday she has given away more than $2.7 billion to hundreds of groups this year.
In a blog post, Scott said she donated to 286 “high-impact organizations” focused on a variety of causes, ranging from the arts and racial justice to higher education and combating domestic violence. The announcement marks Scott’s first donation since she remarried to Dan Jewett, a Seattle science teacher, earlier this year.
“Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change,” Scott wrote in the blog post. “In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.”
Scott has taken an unusual approach to philanthropy, previously saying she consulted her team on how to give away her fortune faster. Tuesday’s announcement marks Scott’s third donation in less than a year.
Scott has a net worth of more than $59 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Scott became one of the world’s wealthiest women following her divorce from Bezos in 2019, which left her with a 4% stake in Amazon. Her ex-husband is the wealthiest man in the world, according to the index.
Scott has been on a giving spree since July 2020, when she announced a $1.7 billion donation to historically Black colleges and universities, along with other groups. Last December, Scott announced she gave away another $4.2 billion to hundreds of organizations.
In 2019, Scott signed onto the Giving Pledge, committing to give away at least half of her fortune to charity. The Giving Pledge was started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010 to encourage the world’s ultra-rich to distribute their wealth.
