MacKenzie Scott is donating millions to LGBTQ+ and progressive nonprofits in a continuation of her charitable donations through Yield Giving.
Scott retained $36.3 billion after her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019 in which she received a 4% stake in Amazon. Scott and Bezos were married for 26 years prior to their divorce. According to reports from Pink News, she plans to donate $640 million of her wealth to 361 “leftist” charities. Fifteen of the receiving charities work directly with LGBTQ+ causes and struggles.
Scott keeps an online database for her giving initiative, Yield Giving, which she launched in 2019. The project seeks to share Scott’s financial fortune with worthy organizations. Scott’s team researches candidate orgs, evaluates their current financial state and potential need before awarding donations.
Making donations since 2020, Scott has focused on delivering funding to both local, regional, and national organizations that dal with issues of civil injustice, community wellness, access to housing and healthcare, mental and physical health, sexual and domestic violence, and more. These include Habitat for Humanity, YMCAs, Raising Child Care Fund, Climate Justice Resilience Fund, and more.
Many organizations which have already received funding from Scott over the last four years indirectly work with the LGBTQ+ community, but in her newest chunk of donations, more organizations that work on the ground with LGBTQ+ people will receive funding. These organizations include Gender Justice: which works to dismantle social, cultural and legal gender inequities, EdgeNJ: which serves the HIV positive community, and LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. When announcing this distribution of funds, Scott referred to the charities chosen as “vital agents of change.”
