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MacKenzie Scott has done it again. MacKenzie announced earlier this week that she’s more than doubling her planned gifts to nonprofits by giving away another $640 million to 361 small nonprofits. MacKenzie had put an open call up on her Yield Giving website, welcoming nonprofits with annual budgets between $1 and $5 million to apply for consideration in this round of donations. The call asked for community-led nonprofits whose goal is to ”advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means.” With this latest round of donations, MacKenzie will have given away more than $17 billion to charities and organizations worldwide over the last five years. I can hear Elon Musk’s angry sobs of protest now.
Billionaire philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott announced Tuesday she is giving $640 million to 361 small nonprofits that responded to an open call for applications. Yield Giving’s first round of donations is more than double what Scott had initially pledged to give away through the application process. Since she began giving away billions in 2019, Scott and her team have researched and selected organizations without an application process and provided them with large, unrestricted gifts.
In a brief note on her website, Scott wrote she was grateful to Lever for Change, the organization that managed the open call, and the evaluators for “their roles in creating this pathway to support for people working to improve access to foundational resources in their communities. They are vital agents of change.”
The increase in both the award amount and the number of organizations who were selected is “a pleasant surprise,” said Elisha Smith Arrillaga, vice president at The Center for Effective Philanthropy. She is interested to learn more about the applicants’ experience of the process and whether Scott continues to use this process going forward. Some 6,353 nonprofits applied to the $1 million grants when applications opened.
“The donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount,” said Lever for Change, which specializes in running philanthropic prize awards. The 279 nonprofits that received top scores from an external review panel were awarded $2 million, while 82 organizations in a second tier received $1 million each.
Competitions like Scott’s open call can help organizations who do not have connections with a specific funder get considered, said Renee Karibi-Whyte, senior vice president, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
“One of the best things about prize philanthropy is that it surfaces people and organizations and institutions that otherwise wouldn’t have access to the people in the power centers and the funding,” she said. Her organization also advises funders who run competitive grants or philanthropic prize competitions to phase the application to diminish the burden of applying on any organization that is eliminated early.
Megan Peterson, executive director of the Minnesota-based nonprofit, Gender Justice, said the application was a rare opportunity to get noticed by Scott.
“Having seen the types of work that she has supported in the past, we did feel like, ‘Oh, if only she knew that we were out here racking up wins,’” said Peterson.
Her organization has won lawsuits recently around access to emergency contraception and the rights of trans youth to play sports. They plan to use the funds to expand their work into North Dakota. Peterson said the funds must be used for tax exempt purposes but otherwise come with no restrictions or reporting requirements — just like Scott’s previous grants.
“I think she’s really helping to set a new path for philanthropy broadly, which is with that philosophy of: Find people doing good work and give them resources and then get out of the way,” Peterson said of Scott. “I am grateful for not just the support individually, but the way in which I think she is having an impact on philanthropy broadly.”
That’s a great point about an open call helping organizations who don’t have connections or even a fundraising position/team to raise capital. What a wonderful opportunity for them to have an equal chance as some of the nonprofits on the higher end of the application scale. You can see the full list of nonprofits who were awarded money through the open call via MacKenzie’s Yield Giving website.
I know the bar is low when it comes to billionaires paying taxes or doing things to help people, but I find it really impressive and just plain awesome that MacKenzie has been using her divorce settlement money to do such good in the world. Just like it was equally as awesome of Dr. Ruth Gottesman to donate the $1 billion that her husband left her to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx last month. You know what? I think if billionaires are going to exist, they should only be awesome women like MacKenzie and Dr. Gottesman. I said what I said. Cry more, Elon.
photos credit: Getty
The organization I used to work for received $2 million. When I say that influx of money is transformative, I am not exaggerating. A couple of important points: the funds are unrestricted, which means nonprofits can use the money in whatever way they deem the highest priority – this almost NEVER happens. Usually funders attach many restrictions on their funding (the stories I could tell!). Also, the organizations had to have annual budgets under $5 million – these are the ones that have the hardest time devoting resources to fundraising. And finally, I took part in the application process and it was transparent, fair and rigorous. There were a lot of steps and it was a LOT of work, but it was so elegant and reasonable. As we like to say, Mackenzie Scott is one of the GOOD billionaires.
Thank you for sharing @Maria T it’s so nice when someone has personal connection to a story and expand on it.
This makes me really happy to read, thanks for sharing.
Congratulations, this is game-changing money for a small NFP! And that the funds are unrestricted is a huge deal.
Wow, that’s amazing Maria. Thank you so much for sharing.
I Adore and Respect her So Much!!!
The unrestricted part of all her donations is just such a game changer. So many grantors say the money can only be used for X project, or for what literally goes into the hands of the public, or what have you, when organizations also need funds for salaries and printer paper and literally keeping the lights turned on too. Trust the people doing good work to know where it will be the most effective!
gross that any one person has accumulated so much wealth.
Mackenzie Scott’s example is something that I hope becomes a standard or model of behavior for the people who manage to attain financial success at these heady levels.
I do see this type of philanthropy and genuine altruism at lower levels of wealth but yeah, most of these guys in the upper echelons just use their wealth to manipulate the system to accumulate and HOARD wealth where it doesn’t serve even them and becomes just a number.
They fail to understand when you use your wealth to make the world a better place, it becomes a better place for you to inhabit as well. But they would rather sit like dragons in a vault of treasure while the world burns around them.
How nice to read this!
I loath the very idea of billionaires, but I also agree that if they have to exist, they should all be like Dr. Gottsman and MacKenzie. Redistribution of wealth is the only acceptable thing to do with that much money.
I love it when she pops up and does something like this.
To do list:
wake up
Yoga
Shower.
Coffee. Breakfast.
Brush teeth. Floss!
Walk the dog
Give away $640 million
Relax with a good book
Watching heads explode gives me immense satisfaction
seriously!!
it has never ceased to amaze me that there are butts that get hurt by this
Good to see that woman like MacKenzie Scott and Dr. Ruth Gottesman exist.
Too bad most (male) billionaires couldn’t care less.
What we all need most though are politicians who come up with fair wage and tax models. No loopholes.
Then the problem of having egocentric and egotistical billionaires with huge egos would be a lot smaller.
Billionaires shouldn’t exist but if they have to they should all be like McKenzie Scott. Better yet the Government should be taxing people more so that no one can become a billionaire.
A small community-serving nonprofit near me was awarded $2M. They do amazing work, most of it free arts education in a very disadvantaged, majority Black and Latino city. Ms Scott’s team has good vetting skills!
That’s so awesome!
People like her give me hope. All is not yet lost and we can still fight the good fight.
Thanks for posting this!
Noted the story was from AP, the first international news photo agency that flagged Mother’s Day photo by Princess Photoshop. AP is taking a hit this year from Gannett, the largest US newspaper publisher by daily circulation, as Gannett announced they were no longer using content from AP as of 3/25/24.
Loads of respect for MacKenzie Scott 🌹