Despite Giving Billions To HBCUs, MacKenzie Scott Was Left Off The Chronicle Of Philanthropy’s Top Donor List – AfroTech
MacKenzie Scott has built a reputation for her generosity, reportedly donating roughly $7.2 billion in 2025 alone — including well over $1 billion to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Despite her significant contributions and ongoing philanthropic work, Scott’s name was notably absent from the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest ranking of top donors. According to the International Business Times (IBM), limited public disclosure around her philanthropy played a key role in her omission. Scott, her representatives, and Yield Giving — the organization that oversees her donations — declined to provide sufficient information about donor-advised funds to meet the publication’s inclusion criteria, the outlet notes.
“MacKenzie Scott is among the notable absences on the Philanthropy 50 list,” The Chronicle said, per IBM. “While it is possible she made gifts to her donor-advised funds that would have earned her a spot on the Philanthropy 50, she and her representatives declined to provide such information to the Chronicle.”
Inside MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy
Scott is, without a doubt, one of the world’s leading and most influential philanthropists, according to Fortune, despite maintaining a notably low public profile and revealing little about the inner workings of her charitable efforts.
Scott’s charitable giving in 2025 alone exceeded the estimated lifetime donations of her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, and his current wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, combined, Fortune further reports.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Scott received about 4% of Amazon shares — worth billions — following her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s fourth-richest person. On May 25, 2019, she signed the Giving Pledge, committing the majority of her fortune to charitable causes.
Since making that commitment, Scott has directed billions toward initiatives focused on Black healthcare, education, housing, food insecurity, and community development across the country.
Her contributions to HBCUs include $80 million to Howard University and $63 million each to Morgan State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Prairie View A&M University, AFROTECH™ noted. Spelman College received $38 million, while $19 million went to Dillard University.
Scott’s ties to the Black community date back to her years at Princeton University, where she studied creative writing under the late Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, AFROTECH™ previously reported.
Scott has credited Morrison’s mentorship with shaping both her storytelling and her worldview, particularly her ability to understand and connect with others’ experiences — values that continue to inform her philanthropy.
“MacKenzie was one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes… really one of the best,” Morrison shared in a 2013 Vogue interview, per Stay Inspired.
Scott Says Money Doesn’t Measure Impact
In an essay published via Yield Giving in December 2025, Scott revealed that she had donated $7.166 billion to organizations carrying out work worldwide.
“This dollar total will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year,” Scott wrote.
She also reflected on society’s definition of generosity, arguing that many meaningful forms of giving often go unrecognized and questioning whether the impact of generosity can truly be quantified by money alone.
“The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated, often on the basis that it is not financially self-sustaining, or that some of its benefits are hard to track,” Scott added. “But what if these imagined liabilities are actually assets? What if these so-called weaknesses foster the strengths upon which the thriving (or even survival) of our civilization depends? What if the fact that some of our organizations are vulnerable can itself be a powerful engine for our generosity?… Votes are not the only way to show what we’d like to see more of in our societies. There are many ways to influence how we move through the world, and where we land.”
