Ex-wife of Jeff Bezos gives away another chunk of her $57 billion fortune to worthy causes.
MacKenzie Scott says she has given a further $2.7bn (£1.9bn) to 286 organisations. It was the third round of announcements Scott has made regarding her philanthropy, which rivals the largest of foundations.
Scott, 51, said a number of “high-impact organisations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked” were among the recipients.
In 2020, she made two similar surprise announcements and donated about $6bn to causes including Covid relief, gender equity, historically Black colleges and universities and other schools.
In a post last week, she wrote. “The headline I would wish for this post is ‘286 Teams Empowering Voices the World Needs to Hear’.
“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating. This is equally - perhaps especially - true when their work is funded by wealth. Any wealth is a product of a collective effort that included them. The social structures that inflate wealth present obstacles to them. And despite those obstacles, they are providing solutions that benefit us all.”
With more than 700 million people globally still living in extreme poverty, Scott wrote, her team “prioritised organisations with local teams, leaders of color and a specific focus on empowering women and girls”.