MacKenzie Scott Offers $436 Million to Habitat for Humanity

MacKenzie Scott, who promised in 2019 that she would give away her fortune “till the protected is empty,” has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity Worldwide and its 84 associates, the group stated Tuesday.

The present is designed to assist alleviate the worldwide housing scarcity and promote “equitable entry to inexpensive housing,” Habitat for Humanity stated in an announcement.

The group stated that it will use $25 million of the donation over the subsequent three to 4 years to create extra inexpensive housing and assist “the thousands and thousands of people more and more shut out of the housing market.”

“With this donation, Habitat is properly positioned to meaningfully advocate for the systemic and societal modifications wanted to enhance equitable entry to inexpensive housing,” Jonathan Reckford, chief govt of Habitat for Humanity, stated within the assertion.

Ms. Scott, an writer and philanthropist, pledged in 2019 to give away as much of her wealth as possible, after her divorce from Jeff Bezos, the founding father of Amazon. On the time, her portion of the divorce settlement, some 4 p.c of Amazon shares, was valued at round $36 billion.

However the hovering worth of that inventory has meant that Ms. Scott is accumulating wealth quicker than she can provide it away.

By February, she had donated $8.8 billion, and right now she is value practically $50 billion, according to Forbes.

In 2020, Ms. Scott gave $1.7 billion to a long list of institutions and causes, together with traditionally Black faculties and universities, organizations that assist girls’s rights and L.G.B.T.Q. equality, and efforts to combat local weather change and racial inequity.

Final 12 months, she gave cash to organizations such because the Apollo Theater and Ballet Hispánico, although she didn’t disclose the quantities. Dance Theater of Harlem, which acquired $10 million from Ms. Scott in 2021, stated the present was the biggest in its historical past.

Ms. Scott, 51, couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon Tuesday. She has struggled with the portrayals of her philanthropy, bemoaning what she described as the main target by the information media on the quantities of cash she provides away somewhat than on the work of the organizations that obtain her items.

“Folks struggling in opposition to inequities deserve middle stage in tales about change they’re creating,” she wrote in a post on Medium in 2021, when she introduced that she was donating greater than $2.7 billion to 286 organizations.

In December 2021, she stated she would now not announce the names of the organizations that had acquired donations.

“I need to let every of those unimaginable groups communicate for themselves first in the event that they select to, with the hope that once they do, media focuses on their contributions as an alternative of mine,” she said in another Medium post.

Ms. Scott graduated from Princeton, the place she studied creative writing under Toni Morrison.

She pursued a profession as a author whilst she helped Mr. Bezos begin his enterprise. They had been married for 25 years. Quickly after their divorce, Ms. Scott, nonetheless utilizing her married identify, signed the Giving Pledge, noting that she had “a disproportionate sum of money to share.”

Different rich folks, together with Warren Buffett and Invoice Gates, have additionally signed the pledge, promising to provide away a minimum of half of their wealth earlier than they die.

However observers of such philanthropy have famous that the Giving Pledge does little to a cut back general wealth as a result of giant fortunes continue to grow, usually quicker than philanthropists can cut back them by means of donations.

And Ms. Scott’s current determination to not announce the recipients of her items has led to calls for her to be more transparent.

Ms. Scott appeared to deal with that criticism in December, saying on Twitter that she “appreciated seeing curiosity in understanding” how her wealth was distributed and that she was within the means of “sharing particulars about our first 2+ years of labor, together with current items.”

“Data, too,” she stated, “is a vital type of giving.”