Author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated nearly $6 billion of her fortune in 2020.
Scott, who was once married to Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, announced in a Medium post on Tuesday that she had given nearly $4.2 billion to 384 organizations in just the last four months. Many of the groups are focused on basic needs, including food banks and Meals on Wheels, in a trying year for millions of people.
“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” Scott wrote. “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”
Her donation to Virginia State University has become the largest single donor gift in the historically Black college’s history.
The university said the money would go toward “broader opportunities focusing on a holistic approach to academic excellence and student success and engagement while emphasizing leadership and professional development, career planning, and experiential learning.”
“Thanks to her investment in VSU, a generation of students who are living through the challenges of a pandemic, a social justice movement, and reduced scholarship funding will have additional resources as they continue to pursue their dreams of a world class education at Virginia State University,” University President Makola M. Abdullah said in a statement.
Scott made donations to several other historically Black colleges and universities, including Virginia’s Norfolk State, according to her post, which listed the colleges among the recipients of donations.
Earlier this year, Forbes named Scott one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women for 2020.
Virginia State University has an attendance of just under 4,000 students and is located in Petersburg, about 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) south of Richmond.
