MacKenzie Scott Can’t Wait To Give Away Her Billions, Here’s Why
Learn some of the beliefs behind Scott’s strategy
As a young student at Princeton University, MacKenzie Scott was taught by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, who described Scott as “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative writing classes.” In 2005, Scott wrote her award-winning debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, while raising a family and helping her then-husband, Jeff Bezos, build the behemoth, billion-dollar company called Amazon.
Following her divorce from Bezos in 2019, Scott became the third-wealthiest woman in the world. This prompted a bold and calculated series of steps in giving away the majority of that wealth — or what she describes as “seeding by ceding”. In 2020, she donated $5.8 billion to 500 different groups. In 2021, she gave away an additional $2.7 billion. Scott is getting rid of her money faster than any billionaire that Forbes has ever tracked.
Her approach to giving is ruthless, in all the good ways. It’s something I respect tremendously because it challenges the way institutional philanthropy exists in the West, primarily because it’s less bureaucratic and rooted in some of the simplest and most empathetic ideals by which I try to live.
