Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated $300 million to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and education nonprofits over the past month — marking one of her most significant bursts of giving in recent years.
Scott’s donations have gone to multiple institutions across the United States, including major gifts to Alabama State University, Alcorn State University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
On Monday, Scott gave $38 million to Alabama State University, a public HBCU in Montgomery, Alabama. She also donated $42 million to Alcorn State University in Mississippi — bringing her total contributions to that school to $67 million, following a $25 million gift in 2020 that helped launch new scholarship programs.
Earlier in October, Morgan State University in Baltimore received $63 million, the largest single gift in its history and Scott’s second donation to the institution in five years.
Last week, Scott donated $38 million to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, adding to a previous $20 million gift she made in 2019.
Her philanthropic focus continues to center on expanding access to affordable, high-quality education for underserved students of color.
“Votes are not the only way to show what we’d like to see more of in our societies,” Scott wrote on her website, Yield Giving. “There are many ways to influence how we move through the world and where we land.”
Since 2019, Scott has given away more than $17 billion to charities, schools, and social-impact organizations — often without restrictions on how the funds are used. Her latest round of gifts cements her as one of the most influential private donors to HBCUs in U.S. history.
