Billionaire MacKenzie Scott doubles down on DEI with $42 million donation

Stand by DEI

• Scott’s $42 million donation to 10,000 Degrees represents the largest single gift in the organization’s 45-year history, strengthening its strategy to fund funding opportunities for first-generation and low-income students, many of whom are students of color.
• Its latest donation also includes tens of millions to Native Forward, the nation’s largest provider of scholarships to Native students, signaling continued support for racial equity-focused education funds amid broader DEI sector cuts.
• This pattern is consistent with Scott’s hallmark of large trust-based grants to equity-focused institutions, providing flexible capital to expand access and persistence for underrepresented learners.

UNCF Anchor Gift

• In September, Scott donated $70 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund as part of a campaign to boost pooled endowments across 37 black colleges, a move designed to create permanent revenue streams and narrow historic wealth and funding gaps versus majority-white institutions.
• This gift — one of Scott’s largest — builds on her past support of black higher education and reflects a multi-year focus on educational equity as a cornerstone of her philanthropy.

How Scott gives

• Scott’s model emphasizes speed, scope, and minimal constraints: large grants are delivered quickly and without constraints, allowing grantees to distribute funds where needs are greatest and opportunities are most urgent.
• In 2024, she formalized part of her approach through an open invitation process to give, retaining the element of surprise that has made her philanthropy unusually stimulating for recipients unaccustomed to such large, flexible gifts.

Track history and totals

• Over the past five years, Scott has provided more than $19 billion to thousands of organizations, with 2024 alone representing nearly $2 billion across nearly 200 grantees focused on economic security, housing, jobs, child development, post-secondary education, and health care.
• Its portfolio of top grantees includes affordable housing, health equity, education, and financial inclusion, with recurring funding from proven performers and a growing list of equity-focused foundations.

Without conditions

• luckScott’s previous report on the United Nations Children’s Fund’s Scott Gift details its design to build endowments and the unrestricted nature of its giving, which aims to accelerate institutional capacity at black undergraduate colleges over the long term.
• Scott’s $19 billion giving arc over five years includes an operational shift toward “mission-aligned” investing combined with grantmaking to double social impact, especially in economic mobility and education.

What’s next in her giving plan?

• Scott, who pledged to give away billions after her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has pointed to expanding into mission-aligned investments that reflect her own grantmaking priorities, aiming to “draw” capital from portfolios that directly advance economic mobility, education, and health — and then amplify that impact back through unrestricted nonprofit giving.
• Expect a continued focus on trust-based funding, replicating gifts to high-performing grantees, and endowment-enhancing contributions that turn equity goals into enduring institutional assets, particularly across historically black colleges and scholarship systems that serve underrepresented students.

For this story, luck Use generative AI to help with the rough draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publication.