MacKenzie Scott gives away $4bn in four months
MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $4bn in the past four months to hundreds of charities and aid organizations, including food banks fighting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Scott, who has a personal net worth of more than $60bn most of which came from her $38bn divorce settlement last year, pledged to give away much of her wealth.
On Tuesday the 50-year-old said she had decided to “Accelerate” her donation strategy this year, and in the past four months had given a further $4.15bn to 384 organizations across the US and Puerto Rico, taking her total donations this year to $6bn. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote in a blog post titled 384 Ways to Help.
Scott published the list of organizations to receive funds, which includes the YMCA, Meals on Wheels, the Global Fund for Women, and the civil rights organization the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Last year she committed to the Giving Pledge Initiative, set up by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates, which encourages the world’s richest people to donate a large portion of their wealth to charitable causes.
Scott’s $60bn net worth makes her the 18th richest person in the world.
Her former husband, Bezos, is the world’s wealthiest person, with a fortune estimated at $185bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, up from $113bn before the pandemic.
