Las Vegas nonprofit receives $1M grant from MacKenzie Scott
Habitat for Humanity of Las Vegas received a $1 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott as part of her overall gift to the international organization — her largest public gift since pledging to give away the majority of her wealth in 2019.
On Tuesday, Habitat for Humanity announced the billionaire and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave $436 million to the organization and 84 of its U.S. affiliates.
The local Habitat group intends to use the unrestricted funds “to be intentional” in developing a strategy to increase its capacity in home building.
It comes at a time when Las Vegas —once considered a top affordable city in the country — sees rapid rising costs in home values and rentals. A recent Zillow report found rent in the Las Vegas area was up 32.9 percent from February 2020. Additionally, Las Vegas Realtors, a trade group, found that the median sales price of previously owned single-family homes rose 26.8 percent between February 2021 and 2022.
“We are so grateful for Ms. Scott’s generous gift to Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas, which allows us to provide more deserving families with new, affordable housing options through homeownership,” Executive Director Angela Phillips said in a Wednesday news release. “Given the affordable housing shortage in Las Vegas, we hope this encourages our community to contribute and stand alongside Habitat to fulfill and align with our intended purpose of impacting our future and the families we serve in Las Vegas.”
Habitat International, the nonprofit’s parent organization, intends to use its $25 million portion of the gift to advocate for policy proposals and legislation that would address systemic racism in housing, according to the release.
Scott, who regularly declines to comment on her donations and instead lets the organization share the news, gave $5 million to Communities in Schools of Nevada last month.
McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.
