Since finalizing her divorce from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2019, Scott has donated more than $16.5 billion to charity
MacKenzie Scott reduced her stake in Amazon last year.
In 2023, the 53-year-old philanthropist, novelist and ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold 65.3 million shares of Amazon.com Inc., according to a regulatory filing obtained by Bloomberg.
The vacated shares represent about a quarter of her stake in the tech giant and, as of Friday, were worth $10.4 billion, according to the outlet.
After divorcing Bezos, 60, in 2019 after 25 years of marriage, Scott ended up with about a 4% stake in Amazon worth $38.3 billion — putting her at No. 22 on the list of the world’s 500 richest people, he reported then Bloomberg.
The favorable settlement also made her the richest woman in the world at the time.
Billionaire, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated a $55 million estate in Beverly Hills to charity
Scott has since reduced his stake in Amazon, selling about half over the past five years, but the online retailer still accounts for most of her $37.6 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
She also joined the Giving Pledge — a list of billionaires who have pledged to donate half of their wealth — in 2019 and has since donated more than $16.5 billion to a range of charities.
The philanthropist explained her decision to take the pledge in a letter posted on the initiative’s website, writing: “I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give. No incentive has more positive ripple effects than the desire to be of service.”
“My approach to philanthropy will continue to be deliberate. It will take time, effort and care. But I will not wait,” she added. “And I will continue to do so until the safe is empty.”
MacKenzie Scott. Michael Kovac/Getty Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos through the years: from office romance to $137 billion split
In July 2020, about a year after she made her pledge, Scott shared in a Medium blog post that she had given nearly $1.7 billion to various charities, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC, Black Girls CODE, Educate Girls, LatinoJustice and the Transgender Law Center.
Later that year, she revealed in another blog post that she and a “team of advisors” had distributed more than $4 billion to organizations helping communities in the U.S. affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — some that meet “basic needs” and others that target to address “long-term systemic inequalities deepened by the crisis”.
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The following summer, she and then-husband Dan Jewett donated $2.7 billion to “286 high-impact organizations in historically underfunded and overlooked categories and communities,” she explained in a blog post at the time.
The organizations included universities, arts and cultural organizations, refugee settlement groups, police reform programs and LGBTQ+ organizations that prioritize leaders of color and groups focused on empowering women and girls, she said.
Most recently, in February and March 2022, Scott donated $133.5 million to Community at School, which helps fund school services for at-risk students, and $436 million to Habitat for Humanity.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education