MacKenzie Scott, 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.
Scott, who is now married to Dan Jewett after her 25-year-old marriage to Amazon CEO crashed, made the announcement in a Medium blog post.
Scott and her husband Dan Jewett, donated $2.74 billion to 286 organizations that focus on the arts and combating racial discrimination.
In announcing the gifts to 286 organizations, Scott blasted the wealth gap that she said has placed “disproportionate wealth” into a “small number of hands.”
Scott said she and her charitable team are “attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change.” Amazon.com’s rapid growth has helped lift the fortunes of both Scott and Bezos, with her ex-husband’s fortune of almost $200 billion making him the world’s wealthiest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. MacKenzie Scott, ranked the 22nd wealthiest person, is worth almost $60 billion.
This marks Scott’s third major round of donations. She gave away nearly $6 billion in 2020 to 500 organizations. Scott is also a signee of the Giving Pledge, promising to give away half of her fortune to charitable causes during her lifetime, or after her death.
This most recent donation brings her philanthropy to more than $8.5 billion worth of donations in less than a year.
Detailing the recipients of her latest donation, MacKenzie Scott wrote: “Sitting down to write this post, I felt stuck. I want to de-emphasize privileged voices and cede focus to others, yet I know some media stories will focus on wealth.”
Scott, who is the 22nd richest person in the world, says she focused her latest donations on higher education, groups bridging divides through interfaith support, arts and culture, anti-poverty organizations led by people of color and grassroots groups supporting local communities.
She said she wanted to give the money to those “that have been historically underfunded and overlooked.”