This past summer, MacKenzie Scott, a novelist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced that she had made eight-figure donations to several of the most prestigious historically Black colleges and universities. Howard University reported that it had received $40 million. Hampton University in Virginia reported a $30 million contribution. Tuskegee University in Alabama, Morehouse College in Atlanta, and Xavier University in New Orleans announced $20 million donations. Spelman College in Atlanta also received a major donation from Scott.
Scott was awarded 4 percent of Amazon shares in divorce proceedings. She is estimated to have a net worth of about $60-$70 billion.
Now Scott has announced gifts of $4,159,000,000 to 384 organizations. She reports that her organization researched 6,490 organizations and more than 800 were considered finalists.
Scott stated that of the organizations selected for donations “some are filling basic needs: food banks, emergency relief funds, and support services for those most vulnerable. Others are addressing long-term systemic inequities that have been deepened by the crisis: debt relief, employment training, credit and financial services for under-resourced communities, education for historically marginalized and underserved people, civil rights advocacy groups, and legal defense funds that take on institutional discrimination.”
Among the donations are gifts to at least 17 historically Black colleges and universities, most of them state-operated institutions.
Here is a list of HBCUs who have benefitted from the latest round of donations from Scott.
Alcon State University, $25 million
Bowie State University, $25 million
Claflin Univerity, $20 million
Clark Atlanta University, $15 million
Delaware State University, $20 million
Dillard University, $5 million
Elizabeth City State University, $15 million
Lincoln University (PA), $20 million
Morgan State University, $40 million
Norfolk State University, $40 million
North Carolina A&T State Univerity, $45 million
Prairie View A&M University, $50 million
University of Maryland Eastern Shore, $20 million
Virginia State University, $30 million
Winston-Salem State University $30 million
The donations listed above total $400 million. Tougaloo College and Voorhees College also received donations but had not announced the amount at the time this post was written.
