Last year, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who is also Jeff Bezos‘ ex-wife, slashed her Amazon stake by 42%. On July 7, she again became the subject of money-focused headlines when Active Minds, a leading US nonprofit mobilising youth and young adults to change the culture around mental health, announced that the philanthropist had offered an unrestricted gift worth $20 million.
Her massive donation to the nonprofit follows five years after her previous $4 million gift and is now the largest in the organisation’s history.
Surprisingly, even as Scott continues offloading sizeable donations and money decisions on top of making million-dollar investments in other charities as well, she has still maintained her billionaire status without breaking a sweat.
MacKenzie Scott’s net worth explored
According to Forbes’ real-time net worth estimations, her fortune witnessed a 1.02% rise ($321 million) and was listed as $31.8 billion, as of July 13, making her the 71st richest person in the world.
Scott, who studied under Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison at Princeton University and worked as an assistant to the “Beloved” writer, is estimated to have a net worth of $35.7 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. As of July 13, the business site’s tally projected that the philanthropist’s net worth registered a 0.2% ($84 million) boost, as she was ranked No. 65 on Bloomberg’s list of richest people in the world.
About Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife’s Amazon stake and vow to give up 50% of her wealth
Scott and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were married for 25 years. She famously received a 4% stake in Amazon worth $36 billion from the tech executive as part of the terms of their divorce in 2019.
That same year, the author-philanthropist signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to give away at least half of her wealth during her lifetime.
Sharing the extent of her renunciations so far, Scott shared on a website called Yield Giving that she has already given up $19.3 billion to more than 2,500 nonprofits. Over the years, she has channelled a “no strings attached” and no-questions-asked approach, as the organisations she donates to have full control over how to make the best use of the funds, according to Forbes.
As reported by Bloomberg, a regulatory filing made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed last year that Scott held 81.1 million shares in the company. The figure was down 58 million from the previous year.
Hailing her no-strings-attached giving spree, Active Minds’ founder and executive director Alison Malmon recently opened up about Scott’s unrestricted $20 million gift to help the youth mental health crisis.
“MacKenzie Scott’s investment in Active Minds is transformative not just in its scale, but in its validation of young people as the primary drivers of change in mental health,” the nonprofit’s top boss told Fortune. “Unrestricted support provides us with the flexibility to use resources where the need and opportunity are greatest, while simultaneously building our long-term capacity to meet this pivotal moment.”
Upholding her rise as one of the most remarkable philanthropists since her 2019 divorce, Scott didn’t just donate to Active Minds this year. Seven months into the year, the author already wrote multiple altruistic checks before her contributions to assuage mental health ailments among the young in July.
In March, she continued her giving campaign to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), doling out a record-breaking $42 million gift to Elizabeth City State University. According to the US university’s announcement earlier this year, the philanthropist’s gift was the largest dollar-per-student-enrolled donation of any HBCU among Scott’s recent contributions. It marks a nearly three-fold jump from the $15 million she donated to ECSU six years ago.