Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, once had to hold together a broken tooth with denture glue because she could not afford dental treatment. Now, the billionaire has made the largest single donation in the history of youth mental health nonprofit Active Minds.ALSO READ: This US tech billionaire once begged power companies to keep his electricity on, faced rejection from almost every investor, now owns a $300 million Hawaiian islandScott has pledged $20 million to the Washington, D.C.-based organization, a gift that comes as concerns over the mental health of young Americans continue to grow. According to Forbes, Scott is now worth an estimated $36 billion, yet she has spent the last several years giving away billions of dollars to charities, universities, hospitals and community organizations around the world. Despite giving millions to multiple organisations, she still continues to remain as one of the richest women.A broken tooth, unpaid tuition and years of financial struggleLong before she became one of the richest women in the world, MacKenzie Scott knew what it meant to struggle financially. While studying at Princeton University, Scott balanced a demanding academic schedule with nearly 30 hours of manual work every week just to stay afloat.ALSO READ: Kimi Antonelli F1: Belgian Grand Prix win extends title lead as George Russell crashes out after first-lap dramaMoney was so tight that she once fell $1,000 short of paying her tuition fees. The situation became so overwhelming that she was found crying on campus, worried she would have to leave university before completing her degree.A friend eventually helped arrange a loan that allowed her to stay in school.Her financial hardship extended beyond education. Scott once revealed that she used over-the-counter denture adhesive to keep a broken tooth together because she could not afford to visit a dentist. Eventually, a local dentist noticed her condition and treated her free of charge.ALSO READ: After selling his tech company for an eight-figure fortune, this Canadian entrepreneur spent $1.5 million building 99 tiny homes to help homelessFrom a borrowed SUV to building AmazonYears later, Scott stood beside her then-husband Jeff Bezos as the couple made a decision that would change the technology industry forever. In 1994, Jeff Bezos quit his lucrative Wall Street job to start an online bookstore.Scott fully backed the idea. She later recalled that she "couldn't wait to hop in the car."During a five-day journey over the July holiday weekend, the couple drove nearly 2,000 miles from Texas to Seattle in a borrowed 1988 Chevy Blazer. Scott spent much of the trip behind the wheel while Bezos sat beside her drafting Amazon's first business plan on his laptop.Using an Excel spreadsheet, Bezos predicted the company would generate $70 million in sales by 2001. According to journalist Brad Stone, Amazon ultimately reported more than $3 billion in revenue that year.Careful budgeting marked Amazon's earliest daysMoney remained tight even as the business was getting started. When the couple could not find a room at a Motel 6 in Shamrock, Texas, they checked into the modest Rambler Motel instead.According to reports, the room was so dirty that Scott refused to take off her shoes. After reaching Bellevue, Washington, Scott became one of Amazon's earliest employees.She handled the company's bookkeeping, wrote employee paychecks, managed job interviews and negotiated shipping contracts while helping build the business from a garage.Amazon went public in 1997 before growing into one of the world's most valuable companies, with businesses spanning e-commerce, cloud computing, streaming and artificial intelligence.Divorce changed her fortune but also her philanthropyScott divorced Jeff Bezos in 2019, receiving a significant share of Amazon stock as part of the settlement. Instead of holding onto much of that wealth, she began giving it away at an extraordinary pace.According to Forbes, Scott has donated well over $19 billion to thousands of nonprofit organizations since 2019, making her one of the most generous philanthropists in modern history.On average, she has been giving away nearly $10 million every day over the past seven years.Her approach has drawn praise from nonprofit organizations for providing unrestricted funding. Her massive giveaways has also attracted criticism from some billionaires, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has questioned large-scale charitable giveaways.Record $20 million gift for Active MindsScott's latest donation of $20 million is the largest gift Active Minds has ever received. The grant is especially significant considering the nonprofit reported approximately $9.9 million in annual revenue during the 2025 financial year, meaning Scott's contribution is more than double what the organization raised during that period.The funding will allow the nonprofit to expand mental health services across schools and universities throughout the United States.Active Minds currently reaches 4.5 million young people through more than 500 student-led chapters nationwide.The organization said the investment will help create a "new era of mental health" by making support more accessible and reducing the stigma surrounding mental health challenges.The nonprofit added: "This transformational investment allows us to build a future where every young person knows mental health is a vital part of their overall well-being."Active Minds now reaches millions of young peopleAccording to its latest financial data, Active Minds now has 13,485 official chapter members across the country.Its student-led programs have directly reached more than 400,000 young people with suicide prevention education and mental health awareness initiatives.Scott's record-breaking donation is expected to accelerate those efforts even further, helping the organization expand its reach at a time when mental health challenges among young people continue to rise.For MacKenzie Scott, whose own life once included unpaid tuition bills, manual labour and even a broken tooth held together with denture glue, the latest gift reflects the philosophy that has defined her post-Amazon life: using extraordinary wealth to create opportunities for people who need them most.(With TOI inputs)