In what has become an annual bonanza of philanthropic largesse, billionaire MacKenzie Scott recently announced that she gave $2 billion to 199 nonprofit organizations in 2024.
Scott has now donated an eye-popping $19.2 billion to more than 2,500 organizations in the five years since she signed the Giving Pledge and vowed to give away her wealth “until the safe is empty.” (Note: The Giving Pledge is a client of Fireside Strategy.)
The magnitude of Scott’s generosity had already put her in the top five of Forbes’ list of the most philanthropic billionaires in the United States, trailing only Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, George Soros, and Michael Bloomberg in lifetime giving, and this latest round may push her into fourth place.
Scott, who was previously married to Jeff Bezos and received a 4% stake in Amazon in their 2019 divorce, is rightly celebrated for the pace and scale of her giving. But she is also increasingly recognized and studied as an innovator and role model for how to do philanthropy well.
Scott’s giving has important guidance not only for billionaires who want to follow her example and ramp up their giving, but also for everyday donors – and investors — who may be contemplating year-end decisions.
Among the relevant lessons from MacKenzie Scott’s approach:
Think Broadly About Ways to Make Change
A notable aspect of Scott’s most recent announcement is her adoption of a new strategy to put her wealth to work to improve the world.
In addition to giving unrestricted grants to nonprofits, Scott “asked the investment team helping me manage the assets I’m working to give away to source funds and companies focused on for-profit solutions to these challenges.”
Rather than maintain her holdings in a “stock portfolio that increases the wealth and influence of leaders who already have it,” Scott continued, “I’d like to withdraw them from a portfolio of investments in mission-aligned ventures, with leaders from the populations they are serving, or from generally undercapitalized groups like women and people of color.”
Scott’s statement is a strong endorsement of a growing movement in philanthropy to encourage individuals and foundations to invest their wealth in for-profits that are working towards social change, alongside their traditional grantmaking mission.
“When a foundation invests its endowment in line with its values, it can significantly amplify its positive impact without sacrificing financial returns,” says Dana Lanza, co-founder and CEO of Confluence Philanthropy, which encourages charitable organizations to harmonize their mission to generate social or environmental impact with their investment strategy.
“Unfortunately, the sector is still lagging when it comes to catalyzing the trillions of dollars in philanthropic endowments toward values-aligned investments. Mackenzie Scott has raised the bar for the entire sector,” Lanza says.
Give Now and Give Later
When Scott joined the Giving Pledge, she wrote: “I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give.” She’s acted incredibly quickly by giving an average of nearly $4 billion annually over the past five years. Her urgency stands in stark contrast to the long-standing tradition of many wealthy individuals and large foundations to give modest slices of their holdings each year so they can sustain their giving for decades or in perpetuity.
Interestingly, Scott’s generosity has not diminished her ability to keep giving for many years to come. Her net worth stood at $31.5 billion on December 19th, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List.
Give Broadly and Give Deeply
Another quandary in the philanthropic sector, particularly when it comes to high-net-worth individuals, is whether it is better to give a small number of extremely large gifts to well established institutions or a larger number of smaller gifts to lesser-known nonprofits.
Scott has demonstrated throughout the past five years that it is possible to do both. In addition to the 199 nonprofits that Scott most recently announced as grantees, earlier this year she partnered with Lever for Change to conduct an open call for funding that resulted in $640 million in grants to 361 awardees – bringing her total giving for the year to $2.6 billion distributed to 597 organizations. (Note: Lever for Change is a client of Fireside Strategy.)
Even when Scott gives relatively small gifts (for her) of $1 million or $2 million, they frequently go to smaller nonprofits so the grants often represent anywhere from 25% to 100% of the organizations’ budget.
Get Good Advice From Smart People
A misconception about MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy is that she makes all of her giving decisions herself – and, indeed, that her go-it-alone strategy is why she has been able to move so nimbly.
While it is certainly true that Scott does not have a formal foundation or hundreds of full-time grantmakers behind her, she is absolutely getting good advice and valuable tactical help from a team of trusted philanthropic advisors.
Though Scott has never identified any of her advisors publicly or on her website, various reports have indicated that she partners with consultants from the Bridgespan Group on her giving.
In her most recent essay, Scott not only highlighted the “investment team” helping to manage the funds she is giving away, but also acknowledged the team who helped identify and upload the details of her most recent grants to her website.
“The gratitude I feel to these non-profits, to these funds and companies, and to the people helping me give these assets away is similar,” Scott said. “I’m inspired by all the ways people invest in each other.”
Help Others Follow Your Lead
In the early years of her giving, Scott was criticized by some for a lack of transparency. She would publish a blog post once or twice a year and disclose her latest grantees, but that was the extent of her disclosures.
Acknowledging the benefits of greater transparency, Scott in 2022 launched a fully searchable website called YieldGiving.com. The centerpiece of the site is a database that discloses the name, location, focus area, and – with the permission of the grantee – the size of all 2,524 grants that Scott has given since 2020.
The site has been a boon to researchers looking to identify trends and patterns in Scott’s giving. But it is also be a helpful tool for anyone looking for worthy nonprofits to support – and have been vetted by one of the country’s most generous philanthropists.
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