Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott continued her mission to redistribute her wealth when she announced a $2 million donation to a non-profit last week. The Crossroad Health Center in Cincinnati, Ohio was shocked and thrilled to receive such a generous donation.
“I’m still stunned by it,” Crossroad Health Center’s CEO Jamie Berrens told Liz Engle of the Cincinnati Business Courier. “It was to the point you almost still didn’t believe it until you actually saw the money go into your account. It’s so incredibly valuable; it’s hard to put into words.” Berrens initially thought the email he received from Scott’s foundation, Yield Giving, was a joke. The $2 million gift is worth nearly a decade of donations for the non-profit. While Yield Giving has been accepting applications from non-profits, Crossroad Health Center never applied.
The group is still deciding where the money should go, but their goals include improving their programs, potentially creating a new program, and moving to a new facility. Crossroad Health Center offers medical assistance that is accessible and affordable to Cincinnati’s residents. Berrens believes the organization can do “something great” with Scott’s donation.
Crossroad Health Center is one of many nonprofits to receive a generous gift from Scott over the past few years. Scott became the richest woman in the world after her divorce from Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, was finalized in 2020. At the time, her net worth was $68 billion, which she pledged to largely redistribute to charitable organizations. Scott signed the Giving Pledge initiative, founded by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, in 2019, which encourages the wealthiest people in the world to donate to nonprofits and charities. “There are lots of resources each of us can pull from our safes to share with others,” she wrote in the Giving Pledge. “And something greater rises up every time we give.”
Scott’s own organization, Yield Giving, is focused on nine areas of need that range from racial equality to climate change. She has donated to historically Black colleges and universities, Girl Scouts, United Way Worldwide, and Right to the City Alliance. Her fortune stands at $40 billion today, and she has donated an estimated $16.5 billion to over 1,600 charities since signing the Giving Pledge. Scott has donated $2 billion to 360 organizations in 2023 alone.
In her split from Bezos, Scott was given a 4% stake in Amazon. While still far less than her ex-husband’s stake, the value was an estimated $35 billion in 2019. As Amazon continues to thrive, so does Scott’s wealth. She is no longer the richest woman in the world – she has been overtaken by L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers – but she initially won the title because of a bump in Amazon stock price. According to Forbes, Jeff Bezos is currently the third richest person in the world, with a net worth of $114 billion. He has not signed the Giving Pledge, nor is he known for donating to charitable causes.
Prior to divorcing Bezos, Scott played a key role in the inception of Amazon. She was one of the company’s first employees and was heavily involved in negotiations and business decisions until taking a step back in 1996. Scott has also written and published two novels, The Testing of Luther Albright and Traps.
