MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, donates $25M to Indiana charity
Scott is among the richest people in the world following her divorce from Amazon's billionaire founder
MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos and one of the wealthiest people in the world, donated $25 million to an Indiana charity this week.
The eye-popping gift to United Way of Central Indiana is the largest donation from an individual given to the 102-year-old nonprofit in its history, according to a spokeswoman for the group.
MACKENZIE SCOTT DONATES $4.2B TO CHARITY
“With so many in our community reeling from the health and economic effects of the pandemic, recovery will not come overnight,” Ann Murtlow, United Way of Central Indiana’s president and CEO, said in a statement Wednesday. “This gift is testament to the hard work of our people and partners, core strategy, demonstrated impact, and deep commitment to making Central Indiana a strong, healthy and equitable community for all.”
FILE - In this March 4, 2018 file photo, then-MacKenzie Bezos arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. A donation from author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to Virginia State University has become the largest single donor g
United Way said the “transformational” donation could help its efforts for at least the next three to five years.
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Scott announced on Medium in December that the charity would be among the 384 organizations that she was donating a total of $4.2 billion to in the 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. She began with a list of nearly 6,500 nonprofits and narrowed it down to just under 400 after her team reviewed the merits of each one, according to her post.
“Not only are non-profits chronically underfunded, they are also chronically diverted from their work by fundraising, and by burdensome reporting requirements that donors often place on them,” she wrote. “These 384 carefully selected teams have dedicated their lives to helping others, working and volunteering and serving real people face-to-face at bedsides and tables, in prisons and courtrooms and classrooms, on streets and hospital wards and hotlines and frontlines of all types and sizes, day after day after day.”
Last year, Scott donated another $1.7 billion to 166 organizations, including historically Black colleges and universities.
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She agreed in 2019 to give away the majority of her wealth as part of the Giving Pledge – a generosity pact for “the ultra-wealthy” co-founded by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates.
