MacKenzie Scott, a philanthropist and the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, has donated a whopping $26 billion since pledging to give away most of her fortune back in 2019. Some of these donations have included several HBCUs to which she now has officially donated over $1 billion.
MacKenzie Scott’s HBCU donations reach the $1 billion mark
Scott has made several unrestricted donations to HBCUs across the country, including Howard University, Tuskegee University, Hampton University and Clark Atlanta University. Her latest gift was a $42 million donation to Elizabeth City State University announced last month. The donation has pushed her total donations to HBCU beyond $1 billion, according to Fortune.
“I want to express our deepest gratitude to MacKenzie Scott for this remarkable act of generosity and for her recognition of the critical role that HBCUs play in expanding opportunity and strengthening communities,” Chancellor S. Keith Hargrove Sr. said in a keynote address during the HBCU’s Founders Day Convocation in March. “Her investment affirms what we already know: that institutions like ECSU are powerful catalysts for change.”
As Blavity reported, the gift was record-breaking as it was the largest dollar per student enrolled gift of any HBCU that Scott has donated to so far. Scott’s donations to HBCU also have the particularity to be unrestricted, meaning that the institutions can allocate funds however they see fit toward scholarships, endowments, facility upgrades and more.
“She practices trust-based philanthropy,” Anne Marie Dougherty, the CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, said in an interview with Fortune.
“Her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,” Noni Ramos, the CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley added.
MacKenzie Scott pledged to donate at least half of her fortune in 2019
After settling her divorce with Jeff Bezos in 2019, Scott’s fortune was valued at $28.4 billion as she received a 4% stake in Amazon, per Forbes. She also signed the Giving Pledge, in which she promised to donate at least half of her fortune.
“In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” she wrote in May 2019 in the pledge. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”
Scott has donated over $26 billion so far. In 2025 alone, she gave an estimated $7.2 billion to 186 organizations. This is more than what most U.S. billionaires have given over their lifetimes combined, according to Inc.