Why MacKenzie Scott Just Gave Away $640 Million to 361 Nonprofits

The billionaire philanthropist and author announced her latest wave of donations on Tuesday

• MacKenzie Scott is continuing to give back

• On Tuesday, the billionaire philanthropist announced she had given away $640 million to 361 nonprofits across the country

• The benefitting organizations were chosen via "quiet research" and an open call, Scott said

MacKenzie Scott is continuing to give back — to the tune of over half a billion dollars!

On Tuesday, the philanthropist and author announced she had given away $640 million to 361 nonprofit groups across the country, which were chosen from over 6,000 applicants.

“Each of these 361 community-led non-profits was elevated by peer organizations and a round-2 evaluation panel for their outstanding work advancing the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles," Scott, 53, wrote in a post on her Yield Giving website.

Scott added that she was grateful to “everyone on the evaluation and implementation 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.”

The nonprofits were chosen through a “quiet research” process that identified and evaluated the organizations for “positive impact,” and through an open call effort, Scott wrote.

Related: MacKenzie Scott's Most Charitable Donations So Far

Scott’s philanthropic efforts have been making headlines for years following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Worth about $37 billion at the time, the mother of four joined the Giving Pledge initiative — started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda French Gates in 2010 — to donate the majority of her fortune.

One year after taking the pledge, Scott shared in a July 2020 Medium blog post that she had given nearly $1.7 billion to various charities, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC, Black Girls CODE, Educate Girls, LatinoJustice, Transgender Law Center and more.

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Five months later, Scott and a "team of advisors" shared that they had also distributed more than $4 billion to 384 different organizations across all 50 states to help communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Scott and her then-husband Dan Jewett donated "$2,739,000,000 in gifts to 286 high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked."

And in 2022, Scott gave nearly $570 million in combined donations to various organizations.

Related: MacKenzie Scott Sold a Quarter of Her Amazon Stake — Worth More Than $10 Billion — in 2023

To date, she has donated more than $17 billion to over 2,300 nonprofit organizations, according to her website.

Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently lists Scott as No. 40 on the list of the world's wealthiest people, with a net worth of $36.5 billion.

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