MacKenzie Scott has made a $40 million donation to the African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund, actually doubling down on her ongoing dedication to variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI). The donation is twice the dimensions of Scott’s earlier donation to the identical group in 2021 and represents 20% of the group’s fundraising thus far. It comes simply days after Scott made a $42 million reward to 10,000 levels, a nonprofit devoted to increasing faculty entry for low-income and largely non-white college students.
The Motion Fund, a division of the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation, introduced on Wednesday that Scott’s newest reward stands as the biggest single contribution within the group’s historical past. “The size and influence of MacKenzie Scott’s continued funding in historic preservation is leaving an everlasting mark on our nation’s historical past, and we’re grateful for her philanthropic management,” mentioned Brent Leggs, government director of the African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund.
Scott’s web site, Yield Giving, posted a brand new essay on October 15, noting that a number of new donations are forthcoming and can be reported on, however their influence goes past information headlines: “When my subsequent cycle of presents is posted to my database on-line, the greenback whole will seemingly be reported within the information, however any greenback quantity is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the private expressions of care being shared into the world this 12 months.”
Reinforcing DEI Amid Nationwide Retrenchment
Scott’s $40 million donation arrives at a crucial second. The African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund, launched in 2017, is the biggest privately funded useful resource devoted to the preservation of websites related to Black historical past in america. Up to now, the Fund has raised practically $200 million and supported greater than 378 preservation tasks nationwide, together with church buildings, museums, properties, and architectural landmarks vital to the Black expertise. This pales compared to the funding requests it has obtained: 1000’s of preservation tasks, collectively valued at greater than $1.2 billion. Fewer than 2% of the practically 95,000 locations listed within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations characterize the Black historic expertise, underscoring what advocates describe as an pressing want for funding in Black cultural preservation.
Scott’s transfer comes at a time when many organizations are dealing with political and monetary stress to cut back DEI efforts, with one in 5 main companies chopping their budgets for such initiatives in 2025, in accordance with Resume.org. By doubling her prior funding, Scott has despatched a symbolic and substantive message that investing in cultural fairness and recognition is important.
“Thanks to MacKenzie Scott for her far-reaching imaginative and prescient and for recognizing the aim and singular influence of the Motion Fund,” mentioned Carol Quillen, President and CEO of the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation.
Scott’s Signature Philanthropy Model
Scott has dedicated to freely giving the vast majority of her $41.2 billion estimated fortune from her involvement with the founding of Amazon. Since 2019, when her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was finalized, she has distributed greater than $19 billion to over 2,000 nonprofits, with about $110 million directed particularly to DEI causes prior to now 12 months alone. Her mannequin is characterised by trust-based philanthropy: massive, unrestricted presents made with minimal forms. Her web site states, “Communities have at all times led their very own preservation. We’re merely supporting those that already know what wants defending.”
In a interval marked by uncertainty and debate concerning the worth of DEI, Scott’s $40 million reward is a high-profile affirmation and a big enhance for the battle to protect Black heritage for future generations.
