MacKenzie Scott reveals details of her $14bn in donations to 1,600 non-profits

The billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s donations have yielded more than $14bn for about 1,600 non-profits since 2019, according to her new website Yield Giving, which was unveiled on Wednesday night.

Scott’s wealth largely comes from her divorce from the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. She has signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away more than half. Forbes currently estimates her net worth at $27bn.

Scott has not given any interviews about her donations, opting to discuss her reasons in essays posted on Medium and now on Yield Giving.

Until now, Scott and her team secretly contacted organizations they were interested in, then offered donations after receiving data. On Wednesday, Scott announced plans to introduce an “open-call process”, to allow non-profits to send information for evaluation.

“Information from other people – other givers, my team, the non-profit teams I’ve been giving to – has been enormously helpful to me,” Scott wrote. “If more information about these gifts can be helpful to anyone, I want to share it.”

Scott said she and her team evaluate organizations by analyzing their “potential for sustained positive impact” including finances, history and measurement of outcomes, and if they have “experienced leadership representative of the community served”.

Scott said the “open-call” process will focus on specific types of organizations or certain locations. She plans to post criteria for eligibility and selection, as well as naming the panel evaluating the applications publicly.

“Will the website be helpful? Will expressing things in my own way (laboring over every word) lead to any misunderstanding?” she wrote. “Will misunderstanding be a barrier between us? Yes. Sometimes humans misunderstand each other. And yet, over time, each of us can help remove barriers through what we continue to choose to do.”