MacKenzie Scott signed the Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to give away most of his fortune.
Photographer: Evan Agostini / Invision / AP
Photographer: Evan Agostini / Invision / AP
MacKenzie Scott is giving away his fortune at an unprecedented rate, giving more than $ 4 billion in four months after announcing an additional $ 1.7 billion gifts in July.
The richest person in the world with a net worth of $ 60.7 billion announced the latest gifts in a blog post, saying he asked his team to figure out how to give away his fortune faster. Scott’s wealth has risen to $ 23.6 billion this year alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as Amazon.com Inc., the main source of its fortune, has risen.
After considering nearly 6,500 organizations for possible contributions, their advisers ended up reducing 384 groups to receive gifts, Scott said in a statement. publication in the middle.
“This pandemic has been a devastating ball in the lives of Americans who are already in trouble,” he wrote. “Economic losses and health outcomes have been worse for women, for people of color and for people living in poverty. In the meantime, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires. “
The donations focused on groups “operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequality, high rates of local poverty and low access to philanthropic capital.”
Give a pledge
Scott, 50, who was previously married to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, signed the Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to give away most of his fortune.
“I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” he said he wrote to his promise. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be reflective. It will take time, effort and care. But I will not wait. And I will keep going until the safe is empty. “
The pace at which he has been giving it away rivals many other philanthropists, despite being relatively new.
“Other billionaires should be inspired by their approach to transfer funds to urgent needs, to historically marginalized groups, to share decision-making with non-rich people, and to avoid storing funds in inherited private foundations,” said Chuck Collins, director of the program Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Political Studies, said in an email.
This year has also been an active year for Bezos philanthropy. In February, it committed $ 10 billion to climate change-related issues and last month announced the first of those grants, which totaled nearly $ 800 million to 16 groups. It also unveiled another round of grants for its Day One Fund, which donated more than $ 100 million to 42 organizations fighting family homelessness.
Bezos, 56, held three-quarters of Amazon’s shares in the divorce, maintaining his status as the world’s richest person with a fortune of $ 185 billion, according to the Bloomberg index. Its net worth has increased by $ 70 billion this year.
(Updates with Scott’s comments from the fourth paragraph.)