MacKenzie Scott Continues HBCU Support With $42M Donation To Elizabeth City State University – AfroTech
MacKenzie Scott is continuing her support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with the donation of $42 million to Elizabeth City State University (ECSU).
ECSU Chancellor S. Keith Hargrove Sr. announced the gift on Friday, March 13, 2026, during the university’s Founders Day Convocation, which marked 135 years since its founding in 1891. The institution has long been committed to expanding access and opportunity through its mission to educate, empower, and elevate, according to a press release.
“I want to express our deepest gratitude to MacKenzie Scott for this remarkable act of generosity and for her recognition of the critical role that HBCUs play in expanding opportunity and strengthening communities,” Hargrove said in a statement. “Her investment affirms what we already know: that institutions like ECSU are powerful catalysts for change.”
How MacKenzie Scott’s $42M Gift Will Benefit ECSU
The gift marks the largest per-student donation among HBCUs in Scott’s recent round of giving, and is nearly triple the amount she donated to ECSU in 2020, the press release states.
Hargrove said the gift will have a transformative impact across the Elizabeth City, NC-based campus, playing an integral role in advancing its five-year strategic plan ASCEND 2030. Funding will support the creation of endowed scholarships to enhance student success, expand innovative academic programs, and invest in academic, athletic, and residential infrastructure, per the press release.
“Gifts like this do more than provide resources; they accelerate momentum,” Hargrove said. “This gift allows institutions like Elizabeth City State University to move boldly toward the future while remaining grounded in the mission that has guided us for 135 years.”
How Toni Morrison Shaped MacKenzie Scott’s Approach To Giving
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has built a reputation largely tied to her philanthropic efforts through her organization, Yield Giving, Fortune reports. Her approach centers on providing unrestricted, large-scale grants to community-based organizations, with a focus on education, Black healthcare equity, and HBCUs.
Since 2020, she has donated at least $19.25 billion of her wealth, with a significant portion directed toward HBCUs, according to the outlet.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, late Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, Scott’s former creative writing professor and mentor at Princeton University, heavily influenced her investment philosophy and generosity.
Morrison’s teachings encouraged students to consider people and their stories through both their dreams and their struggles — an approach that continues to shape Scott’s giving, AFROTECH™ noted.
“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.
After graduating from college, Scott worked as a waitress in New York City before applying for a role at hedge fund D. E. Shaw. With a phone recommendation from Morrison, she secured the position, where she later met Bezos. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994. As of Feb. 20, 2026, the company stands as the world’s largest by revenue, AFROTECH™ noted.
Inside MacKenzie Scott’s Giving Pledge Commitment
Scott and Bezos divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage. As part of the settlement, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon, valued at approximately $38 billion at the time, as AFROTECH™ previously mentioned. Shortly after, she committed to giving away at least half of her wealth by signing the Giving Pledge on May 25, 2019.
“I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give. No drive has more positive ripple effects than the desire to be of service,” Scott wrote in her pledge letter.
“There are lots of resources each of us can pull from our safes to share with others — time, attention, knowledge, patience, creativity, talent, effort, humor, compassion,” she added. “And sure enough, something greater rises up every time we give: the easy breathing of a friend we sit with when we had other plans, the relief on our child’s face when we share the story of our own mistake, laughter at the well-timed joke we tell to someone who is crying, the excitement of the kids in the school we send books to, the safety of the families who sleep in the shelters we fund. These immediate results are only the beginning. Their value keeps multiplying and spreading in ways we may never know.”
