Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is on another donation spree, giving more than $740 million total to over a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as at least one tribal college since mid-October.
In 2019 — the same year Scott and her ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, divorced — she pledged to give away most of her wealth. Scott’s fortune is estimated to be worth $38.7 billion, according to Bloomberg.
On Thursday, Little Priest Tribal College, in Nebraska, said it received a $5 million donation from the billionaire philanthropist. The institution — the first tribal college to publicly announce a gift from Scott during her latest donation blitz — said it would use the gift to accelerate plans to develop a new 10-acre campus.
Only two days earlier, Xavier University of Louisiana, a HBCU, announced it had received a $38 million unrestricted donation from Scott.
So far, Howard University, in Washington, D.C., has garnered the largest among Scott’s recent gifts to colleges. Earlier this month, the philanthropist donated the research university $80 million, earmarking $17 million of that amount for its medical college.
Most of the colleges have received gifts from Scott before.
Scott has made mass donations to higher education institutions in previous years — by 2021, she had given at least $1.5 billion total to roughly six dozen institutions. Her other rounds of donations have likewise focused on minority-serving institutions, such as Hispanic-serving institutions and HBCUs.
Below, we’re rounding up colleges that have received gifts from Scott in her latest donation spree. Let us know if we’ve missed any announcements.
Scott has given over $700M to colleges in latest donation spree
The gifts higher education institutions have received from Scott in recent months