MacKenzie Scott Funnels Over $170 Million Into California Nonprofits

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(NewsWorthy.news) – Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott has given more than $170 million to nonprofit organizations based in California as part of her promise to donate over half of her massive wealth.

Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, with whom she founded the company. According to information shared on her website, Yield Giving, she has donated $137 million to 76 different nonprofits in California. In total, Scott has given billions of dollars to groups across the nation. She has provided a total of 2,325 separate gifts to nonprofits.

Most of the groups that received a donation from Scott were awarded $2 million. 80 of them were given $1 million. The philanthropist’s major donations were highlighted once again after the Los Angeles nonprofit Youth Emerging Stronger, which serves the homeless and foster kids in the area, received a $2 million donation instead of the $1 million they hoped to be awarded.

The group’s president and chief executive, Mark Supper, said his team is “a bit dumbfounded” yet “so happy” about the donation. He described the funds as a “transformational kind of gift” that will benefit the nonprofit, which is one of 25 groups in Southern California that were given a combined amount of $47 million.

Scott has also made massive donations to organizations in the state that advocate for LGBTQ-identified individuals, environmental causes, Native Americans, developmental disabilities, and first-generation college students.

Scott divorced Bezos in 2019, following 25 years of marriage. In the process, she was given a 4% stake in Amazon. She made headlines soon after sharing this information online as she vowed to donate a minimum of half of her wealth throughout the rest of her life. Yield Giving updates and details the almost 1,600 organizations that have partaken in the $14.4 billion she has donated since 2020.

According to Forbes, Scott is committed to donating large sums of money to various nonprofits and allowing the groups to have full control over how to use the funds.