MacKenzie Scott, philanthropist, author and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, married a Seattle science professor. Dan Jewett made the announcement in a letter to the website of the nonprofit organization, Giving Pledge, on Saturday.
Jewett said he never imagined that he would be in a position to talk about giving significant wealth during his life to make a difference in other people’s lives. He expressed gratitude “for the exceptional privilege that will be the partnership in the donation of assets with the potential to do so much when shared”.
Jewett has been a teacher for decades and, more recently, taught chemistry at Lakeside Private School, where Scott’s children studied.
The Giving Pledge
“And now, in a stroke of happy coincidence, I am married to one of the most generous and kind people I know – and I join her in her commitment to pass on enormous financial wealth to serve others,” wrote Jewett.
After donating $ 1.68 billion to 116 nonprofits, universities, community development groups and legal organizations last July, Scott asked a team of consultants to help her “accelerate” her grants for 2020 with help. immediate impact for those financially affected by the pandemic.
Scott went on to donate a total of $ 5.7 billion in 2020, asking community leaders to help identify 512 organizations for seven- and eight-digit donations, including food banks, human service organizations and racial justice charities .
She was listed as number 2 among the 50 Americans who contributed most to the charity in the past year, according to the annual ranking of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Bezos topped the list by donating $ 10 billion to launch the Bezos Earth Fund.
Scott announced a flurry of charity gifts in December in a post on Medium, writing that she was inspired by popular efforts to help people in need, such as community refrigerators and “improvised Venmo gifts from person to person”. Scott said he started by looking at 6,490 organizations and then narrowed his list down to 384 organizations that have a “high impact potential”.
Many of these organizations, like food banks, serve basic needs, while others focus on what Scott called “long-term systemic inequalities that have been deepened by the crisis”. Among the beneficiaries:
- Over 40 Feeding America food banks, from Central California Food Bank to Vermont Foodbank
- More than 40 Goodwill affiliates, such as Goodwill Hawaii and Goodwill of the Heartland
- Programs for 30 Meals on Wheels members, such as Meals on Wheels South Florida and Meals on Wheels Atlanta
- Educational institutions, including Lehman College, City University of New York and Morgan State University, Baltimore
“For the first time, we shared each of our grant decisions with program leaders over the phone and invited them to spend the funding on whatever they believed would best suit their efforts,” she wrote. “Responses from the people who answered the calls usually included personal stories and tears.”
Aimee Picchi contributed to this report.