The world’s richest woman, MacKenzie Scott, and her current husband share the same line of thought: “to cooperate so that money can be invested in causes that change people’s lives and invite us to live in a better world.” During the first months of the year, they announced that they would be dedicated to “identifying and evaluating” NGOs and institutions eligible to receive donations.
At 54, MacKenzie Scott has chosen to live detached from many material things, including much of her fortune. The truth is that the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, founder of the Amazon digital commerce empire, has changed husbands but not her way of thinking.
Her deepest wish—one she shared with Bezos and now shares with Dan Jewett, her current husband—is to leave a profound mark in the field of good causes and contribute her grain of sand (a few several billion, at that) to change many lives and push for a more equal world. In practice, this translates into announcements such as the most recent one, where Scott stated, without hesitation, that in the coming months she will make a USD 2.74 billion donation for charitable purposes. This will benefit nearly 300 philanthropic organizations spanning fields from education to culture and the arts, scattered across the globe.
Most strikingly, Scott has not been intimidated in the slightest by the incipient climate of persecution that followed Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House. She has included numerous organizations and causes benefiting Latino communities.
Scott explained in a post on Medium that both she and her husband, Dan Jewett, intend for the donations to be directed toward NGOs and institutions that have already achieved significant results in their work but are struggling with financial shortfalls. As “a sign of trust and encouragement” for them and others, a substantial influx of money could strengthen and elevate their initiatives.
A Fortune That Multiplies by the Minute
The wealth MacKenzie Scott holds—or rather, does not hold tightly—was estimated by Forbes at around USD 60 billion. This figure is only a starting point, as that staggering sum multiplies by the minute with business activity worldwide and has only grown since Scott divorced Bezos in 2019 and retained a 4% stake in Amazon.
Shortly after separating from her husband, Scott moved quickly and did not hesitate to sign the Giving Pledge. This ambitious agreement of large-scale donations seeks to achieve something apparently not so “crazy or unthinkable” in the world of the super-rich: an irrevocable commitment to dispose of most of their wealth during their lifetime, in a positive and philanthropic way.
David Callahan, author of the bestseller “The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age”, highlights a revealing and remarkable aspect. He points to the unique spirit behind Scott’s massive donations, stressing not only her desire to narrow the wealth gap but also how these enormous sums aim to help amplify the political voice of historically marginalized communities.
Who Is MacKenzie Scott?
Delfina MacKenzie Scott is a low-profile American novelist, businesswoman, and philanthropist. Originally from San Francisco, California, she was born on April 7, 1970, into a family made up of a homemaker, a financial planner, and two brothers. A literature lover, she graduated from Hotchkiss School in Connecticut in 1988 and earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Princeton University in 1992.
Graduating with honors, she proved to be a highly talented writer, winning the American Book Award in 2006. At Princeton, Scott studied under Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, who once said in an interview that she remembered MacKenzie clearly, as she had never had such a brilliant student in her entire teaching career.
Although she and Jeff Bezos attended the same university, they met later in New York. Together they had three children and adopted a daughter from China.
