In order to fulfill her promise to give away her fortune until the safe is empty, MacKenzie Scott has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and its 84 affiliates.
Habitat for Humanity said in a statement that the gift is designed to help alleviate the global housing shortage and promote equitable access to affordable housing.
The organization said that it would use $25 million of the donation over the next three to four years to create more affordable housing and help the millions of individuals who are shut out of the housing market.
Habitat is well positioned to meaningfully advocate for the systemic and societal changes needed to improve equitable access to affordable housing, according to the statement.
After her divorce from Jeff Bezos, Ms. Scott pledged to give away as much of her wealth as possible. Her portion of the divorce settlement was worth around $36 billion at the time.
Daily business updates The latest coverage of business, markets and the economy, sent by email each weekday.The soaring value of that stock has made Ms. Scott accumulate more wealth than she can give away.
She donated $8.8 billion by February, and is now worth $50 billion, according to Forbes.
Ms. Scott gave over $1 billion to a number of institutions and causes, including historically Black colleges and universities, organizations that support women's rights, and efforts to fight climate change and racial inequity.
She gave money to organizations last year, though she did not reveal the amounts. The Dance Theater of Harlem received $10 million from Ms. Scott in 2021.
Ms. Scott could not be reached on Tuesday. She complains that the news media focuses on the amount of money she gives away rather than the work of the organizations that receive her gifts.
She wrote in a post on Medium in 2021 that people struggling against inequalities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating.
In December of 2021, she said she wouldn't announce the names of the organizations that received donations.
She said in another Medium post that she wanted to let each team speak for themselves first, with the hope that media focuses on their contributions instead of her.
Ms. Scott studied creative writing at Princeton.
As she helped Mr. Bezos start his business, she pursued a career as a writer. They were married for 25 years. After their divorce, Ms. Scott signed the Giving Pledge, noting that she had a disproportionate amount of money to share.
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are two of the wealthy people who have signed the pledge to give at least half of their wealth away before they die.
The Giving Pledge doesn't reduce wealth because large fortunes keep growing and philanthropists can't reduce them through donations.
Ms. Scott's recent decision not to announce the recipients of her gifts has led to calls for her to be more transparent.
In December, Ms. Scott said that she was in the process of sharing details about our first two years of existence.
She said that information is an important form of giving.
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