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Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given greater than $500 million to 23 traditionally Black schools and universities throughout the nation
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“On common, establishments chosen to obtain donations attained retention charges fifteen p.c increased than establishments that didn’t obtain a donation,” Rutgers researchers who studied the influence of her donations wrote in a report
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Scott is devoted to making a gift of nearly all of her fortune throughout her lifetime
MacKenzie Scott has an extended, and well-documented, historical past of philanthropy, which incorporates donating thousands and thousands to traditionally Black schools and universities throughout the nation
In 2020, in keeping with a report from Rutgers College, the philanthropist and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos gave a whopping $560 million to 23 HBCUs scattered throughout the nation.
Analyzing the rapid influence of Scott’s donations, Rutgers researchers discovered that, “on common, the median enrollment of latest college students was greater than 300 college students higher for HBCUs that obtained funding when in comparison with the median enrollment for those who didn’t obtain funding.”
Moreover, establishments that bought donations “attained retention charges fifteen p.c increased than establishments that didn’t obtain a donation,” researchers wrote within the 2021 report.
As for what’s occurred to the donations through the years, the Atlanta Journal-Structure just lately reported that Morehouse School officers will use the $20 million donation the varsity obtained to assemble a brand new campus heart constructing.
In the meantime, Spelman School put Scott’s $20 million unrestricted donation to a wide range of makes use of, a faculty spokesperson tells PEOPLE.
$11 million was invested in Spelman’s endowment, $1.1 million was put towards the faculty’s Social Justice Students program and in 2020, each scholar obtained a Path Ahead scholarship price $3,500. Officers used the remainder of the cash for know-how upgrades, tutorial programming and different enhancements.
A spokesperson for Lincoln College in Pennsylvania referred to as their $20 million donation, one of many largest within the college’s historical past, “transformative.”
“The present has been instrumental in strengthening Lincoln’s strategic priorities, together with scholar success initiatives, tutorial innovation, and long-term monetary sustainability,” the spokesperson tells PEOPLE.
Scott additionally gave $25 million to Bowie State College in 2020, in what was the biggest present the varsity had ever obtained, a communications director confirms.
BSU officers put $22.5 million into its endowment fund, then used the rest to “safe grants that require matching funds from the college,” the communications director says. “With out that $2.5M we put aside particularly for matching functions, BSU wouldn’t qualify to use to such grants.”
The College of Maryland Jap Shore, which bought $20 million, discovered loads of makes use of for Scott’s generosity.
“The funds had been used to create three endowments,” a college spokesperson tells PEOPLE.
The primary supplies “annual spendable earnings for a wide range of functions resembling scholarships,” whereas the second funds particular initiatives and the third “was matched with a particular state of Maryland program to create a brand new Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship.”
“The holder of that Chair has additional leveraged the funds to safe roughly $6 million to help packages for college kids, school and group members working to start out their very own companies. Funds had been additionally used for a maker’s house and most just lately for an off-campus enterprise incubator,” the spokesperson provides.
Fellow Maryland college Morgan State College beforehand introduced that they used a majority of Scott’s $40 million present for a newly created “Main the World Endowment Fund,” that might then be invested.
Michael Kovac/Getty MacKenzie Scott in 2018
In a collection of statements, Howard College officers beforehand stated Scott donated $40 million to the varsity in 2020.
“We plan to instantly put this eight-figure present to good use to help elements of our 5-year strategic plan to assist college students graduate on time, retain our proficient school, improve our campus infrastructure and help tutorial innovation and entrepreneurship,” stated then-President Wayne A. I. Frederick.
In 2023, Scott gave an extra $12 million particularly to their School of Drugs.
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In the meantime, an official from Tuskegee College confirms to PEOPLE that with their $20 million donation, they invested half in endowments, which helps fund scholarships — and the opposite half was “put aside for an funding account, which has grown to $14.9 million.”
Scott, who is devoted to making a gift of nearly all of her fortune throughout her lifetime, has a present estimated internet price of practically $40 billion, in keeping with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Within the six years since her divorce divorce from the Amazon founder grew to become official in 2019, leading to an roughly $36 billion settlement, Scott has “reworked” philanthropy along with her sizable, unrestricted donations, in keeping with a three-year examine revealed by the Heart for Efficient Philanthropy earlier this yr.
Since their divorce, she has given away greater than $19 billion to over than 2,000 organizations.
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