MacKenzie Scott has been one of the most generous philanthropists during the past few years, and an episode in college may help explain why.
After finalizing her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, Scott ended up with a load of shares she earned from helping to build the e-commerce giant during its early days, when she helped with business plans and contracts. Upon their divorce, Scott received roughly a 4% stake in Amazon, or about 139 million shares at the time.
Since 2020, Scott has reduced her stake by 42%, selling or donating about 58 million shares. The philanthropist is still worth about $37 billion today, despite having donated $26 billion through her philanthropic platform Yield Giving during the past few years. Yield Giving has donated to thousands of organizations, focused on issues including DEI, education, disaster recovery, and more.
Last fall alone, she donated well over $400 million to several education- and DEI-focused organizations, many of which received the largest gifts in their respective histories—and her grand total for 2025 exceeded $7 billion, making her the biggest megadonor that year.
Scott sees the value of and need for support, especially during someone’s early, formative years. After all, she had to borrow money from her college roommate when she was struggling.
