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MacKenzie Scott Donates $2.7 Billion to 'Underfunded and Overlooked' Causes


FILE - MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., March 4, 2018.
FILE - MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., March 4, 2018.

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced Tuesday that she has donated $2.7 billion to communities "that have been historically underfunded and overlooked."

"Because community-centered service is such a powerful catalyst and multiplier, we spent the first quarter of 2021 identifying and evaluating equity-oriented nonprofit teams working in areas that have been neglected," Scott wrote in a blog post.

But Scott emphasized in the post that she struggled with headlines centering on her instead of the organizations and causes she hopes to uplift.

"Putting large donors at the center of stories on social progress is a distortion of their role," Scott wrote.

She said that the headline she would wish for her post was "286 Teams Empowering Voices the World Needs to Hear."

Among the "teams" Scott listed as the recipients of her donations were higher education institutions "successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved."

Scott also listed interfaith organizations working to bridge racial divides, and arts and cultural institutions working with "culturally rich regions and identity groups that donors often overlook."

Scott committed to donating half her fortune to charity upon divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019.

"My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won't wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty," she wrote at the time.

Scott has donated an estimated $8.5 billion in the past year.

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