Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott hands out $19 bn of her $35.6 bn fortune in ‘unrestricted’ donations

Jeff Bezos’ former wife has reportedly donated $19 billion of her $35.6 billion fortune in “unrestricted” donations. This comes in the aftermath of the hefty divorce settlement that she agreed to as many as five years ago.

MacKenzie Scott’s support to over 2,000 organizations throughout the last five years has amounted to a whopping $19,250,000,000, a report from The Center for Effective Philanthropy, and her websiteYield Giving show.

Per Forbes, Scott has a net worth of $32 billion, which makes her the fifth richest woman in the world. She was married to Bezos for 25 years before the two announced their split in 2019. Bezos later started dating Lauren Sanchez.

Bezos at the time gave Scott a 4% stake in Amazon. He transferred $38 billion in shares into her name. Scott had said that she had “a disproportionate amount of money to share” and vowed to work as hard as possible at donating it “until the safe is empty,” The Guardian previously reported. She is known for having supported more than 2,450 nonprofit groups from East Texas to northern Tanzania, which focus on the arts, affordable housing, education, public health, immigration, and diversity.

“I needn’t ask those I care about what to say to them, or what to do for them. I can share what I have with them to stand behind them as they speak and act for themselves,” Scott said in the CEP report.

The CEP noted that Scott had “transformed recipient organizations and influenced many of the communities these organizations serve,” an effort mostly aimed at supporting “the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds.”

When Jeff Bozos praised MacKenzie Scott’s commitment to philanthropy

Bezos had hailed Scott for the commitment to philanthropy when their divorce was finalised in 2019. “MacKenzie is going to be amazing and thoughtful and effective at philanthropy, and I’m proud of her. Her letter is so beautiful. Go get ‘em, MacKenzie,” he had said.

Meanwhile, speaking of Scott’s February announcement, CEP Research vice president Elisha Smith Arrillaga said, as reported by Independent, “There is much to learn from the experiences of nonprofits who received grants using Scott’s approach. These organizations have managed large gifts in strategic ways that have impacted thousands of lives – whether doubling or tripling the number of individuals receiving food from food banks or increasing the number of houses being built in towns across the country, or countless other examples.”

Arrillaga added, “Investing in organizations and leaders that are doing amazing work can have huge impacts on communities.”