MacKenzie Scott gives $10M to United Way of Southern Nevada
The United Way of Southern Nevada recently received its largest donation ever from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott this month.
The nonprofit said Tuesday it received $10 million, the largest gift ever received by the organization, from Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
“We are humbled to receive such a generous gift to further support our essential work, which has now been underscored by Ms. Scott,” said Kyle Rahn, president and chief executive of United Way of Southern Nevada, in a release. “This gift shows that she believes in our Board of Directors, the meaningful work of our staff, partners and volunteers, and that Ms. Scott believes in the generosity and commitment of our donors by standing with them in support.”
Scott, who received a quarter of Bezos’ Amazon shares as part of the couple’s 2019 divorce, donated $1.7 billion in charitable contributions to 116 U.S. nonprofits in July.
In a Medium post, Scott said she is donating $4.16 billion to 384 organizations across all 50 U.S. states because of COVID-19.
“The pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” Scott outlined in her Medium post. “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”
In the latest round of charitable giving, Scott said her team examined more than 6,490 organizations to determine which groups would receiving the donations, with priorities for those “operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.”
Three Square is another Nevada organization that received a gift, according to Scott’s post. Others, including local chapters of Meals on Wheels, Goodwill, YMCA and the NAACP also received donations.
Scott said her team shared the donation decision with each selected organization for the first time over the phone and that the entire gift “would be paid upfront and left unrestricted in order to provide them with maximum flexibility.”
Scott is the world’s 18th-richest person, with a net worth of $60.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In 2019, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away the majority of her fortune.
“I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott wrote in her pledge.
Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.
