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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated nearly $1,990,800,000 over the past seven months, she announced Monday.
Scott’s update on her philanthropic giving came hours after her former husband, Amazon
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founder Jeff Bezos, said he would give away the majority of his estimated $121 billion fortune during his lifetime.
As the two billionaires announced their latest acts of generosity, the company that created both of their fortunes was making less positive headlines: Amazon is reportedly poised to lay off about 10,000 workers.
Scott, who is worth an estimated $29.4 billion, wrote in a Medium post that her most recent round of donations went to 343 groups across the U.S. “supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities.”
Scott did not elaborate on the donations, but noted that many went to funds that give grants to other nonprofits working on particular issues. Donations also went to several national groups with local chapters around the country, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and Friends of the Children.
Scott has said previously that she wants media attention to focus on the groups receiving her money, not on her.
“I recently learned a saying used in disability communities: ‘Nothing about us without us,’” she wrote in Monday’s update. “For me, it’s another beautiful and powerful reminder. I needn’t ask those I care about what to say to them, or what to do for them. I can share what I have with them to stand behind them as they speak and act for themselves.”
Scott also said she would soon release a database of her giving so the public can see where her donations have gone. Scott has handed out more than $12 billion to charities since her 2019 split from Bezos. She’s made a name for herself as one of the faster moving philanthropists in the U.S, and she’s also gotten attention for her “trust-based” style of giving, which means she doesn’t tell groups receiving her donations how to spend the money.
Scott walked away from her marriage to Bezos with a 4% stake in Amazon, making her the fourth-richest woman in the world at the time.
Amazon shares are down 40% year-to-date, compared to a 6.5% decline for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
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and a 15.9% drop for the S&P 500 Index
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