MacKenzie Scott Deepens Commitment to Equity With $42 Million Gift and Major Support for Minority Scholars

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is reaffirming her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion with a new wave of major donations targeting education access for underrepresented communities. According to Fortune, her latest gifts include a record-breaking $42 million donation to 10,000 Degrees, a Bay Area nonprofit that helps low-income and first-generation students—many of them students of color—attend and complete college.

The $42 million contribution marks the largest single gift in 10,000 Degrees’ 45-year history and underscores Scott’s approach to “trust-based” philanthropy: large, unrestricted grants that allow organizations to deploy funds where they’re needed most.

Scott’s recent giving streak extends beyond the Bay Area. She has donated tens of millions to Native Forward, the country’s largest scholarship provider for Native American students, signaling continued support for racial-equity-centered education even as many institutions pull back from DEI initiatives.

In September, Scott made one of her most significant contributions to date—a $70 million gift to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The donation supports pooled endowments across 37 historically Black colleges and universities, aiming to strengthen their long-term financial foundations and close enduring funding gaps compared to predominantly white institutions.

These donations are part of Scott’s broader mission to advance economic mobility through education. Since 2019, she has distributed more than $19 billion to thousands of organizations. Her 2024 giving alone totals about $2 billion across nearly 200 grantees focused on education, housing, health care, and job access.

Scott’s philanthropic model emphasizes speed, scale, and flexibility. Through her Yield Giving initiative, she has formalized an open-call process to identify new grantees while maintaining her hallmark element of surprise.

Following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Scott pledged to give away the majority of her wealth. Her next chapter appears focused on “mission-aligned” investing—channeling capital into projects that advance education, health, and economic security, then amplifying those gains through unrestricted nonprofit grants.

Observers expect Scott to continue strengthening endowments and scholarship funds for students of color, cementing her role as one of the most influential champions of educational equity in modern philanthropy.