It’s official—we finally have a total figure for MacKenzie Scott’s donations this year: an eye-popping $7.2 billion. That brings the billionaire philanthropist’s total gifts since 2020 to $26 billion and more than 2,700 gifts. This squarely places Scott among the most generous philanthropists, alongside fellow billionaires Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett—all of whom announced major giving plans this year.
“This dollar total will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year,” Scott wrote in an essay published Tuesday. “To use just one year in the United States as an example, the total donated to U.S. charities of all kinds in 2020 was $471 billion, nearly a third of it in increments of less than $5,000.”
This year, the philanthropist, novelist, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made donations to more than 180 organizations, many of which were focused on DEI, education, disaster recovery, and humanitarian causes.
Her largest disclosed donations this year, according to her organization Yield Giving, include:
Blackfeet Community College: $80 million
