America’s greatest patroness – this woman gives away billions “until the safe is empty”

Walter Niederberger from San Francisco

Updated 2 hours ago—

MacKenzie Scott is the patroness who, in this difficult year, distributed so much money to so many groups in such a short time as no other. Specifically, black, Latino, and Native American colleges were considered. Aid organizations for the needy, apprenticeship trainers, disaster victims and food banks that provide families with food were also given gifts.

“The pandemic acted like a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans,” she explains her effort. “For women, people of color and people living in poverty, the health and economic problems have been much worse, while the wealth of the billionaires has increased significantly.”

MacKenzie Scott has profited to an extraordinary extent from growing inequality. Almost two years ago, when she was divorced from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and received a block of shares in the online retailer, she was one of the richest women in the world at $ 23 billion. This year, thanks to the strong appreciation of Amazon, she became the richest woman ever with 63 billion.

6 billion in five months

So it would be easy to sit back and wait for the government to help. Instead, she put together a team of experts who examined over 6,000 aid organizations and schools and ultimately selected 500 for a donation.

“I have an unimaginable amount of money,” she admits. But 2020 is just the beginning. “I’ll keep going until the safe is empty.” Because: «Everything that you do not give freely and in abundance will be lost to you. You open the safe and find ashes. ”

In five months she donated around $ 6 billion. No individual would have given away more money this year. The aid flowed without any bureaucratic effort, and it flowed quickly in view of the Corona crisis. Many recipients did not even know that they had been selected. They were only informed by phone or email that a donation from an anonymous benefactor was expected soon and that the money should be used where it was needed most.

“Donors at all levels now know which institutions need special support.”

Ray Madoff, law professor at Boston College

One call also reached Harold L. Martin, Chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University, the largest historically black university in the country. 45 million dollars, the largest donation ever for the college of 12,000 students, which was founded after the Civil War to train black students to become engineers and agricultural scientists. “We are oozing with joy,” said Martin of the Washington Post. The gift allows the school to reinforce its tradition of practical training and education for social responsibility and commitment.

Donations in the double or even three-digit million range to universities are not uncommon. In the USA, patronage is an independent industry with billions in sales and a lot of prestige. That is why it is predominantly elite universities such as Harvard and Stanford or top hospitals, research centers, museums and theaters that are taken into account. “Most patrons are men, and for them the associated status is more important than women,” says Debra Mesch, professor at the Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University. “Women don’t need to have their names immortalized on the facade of a building.”

She remains anonymous

For these reasons, for example, soup kitchens, youth clubs, schools in Indian reservations or for Latinos and Blacks are not high on the list of rich patrons. They prefer to manage and distribute their money like venture capitalists. But this has three drawbacks, according to research by the Bridgespan advisory group with which Scott worked. First, the money is hoarded for a long time instead of being used quickly. According to Bridegespan, there is currently around a trillion dollars in tax-exempt patron accounts. Second, the funds are always put into the same, already wealthy institutions. And thirdly, the bureaucratic apparatus required for this devours between 17 and 35 percent of the funds.

MacKenzie Scott does that better, says Ray Madoff, a law professor at Boston College. Not only did she distribute the money quickly, she also published the criteria for her selection. “Donors at all levels now know which institutions need special support.”

While renowned foundations such as Carnegie, Bloomberg, and the Gates’ family employ hundreds of employees and build ostentatious offices, Scott has neither a website nor a postal address. The funds are in the accounts of large investment companies, from where they can be sent to the recipient without any effort. That has an advantage. With its distribution concept, it does not have to publish the names of the recipients and it can remain anonymous itself. This, in turn, corresponds fully to their philosophy: “There is this deep encouragement that is felt every time a person is seen and valued by another person and is trusted. This kind of encouragement has a special power when it comes from a stranger. “

Posted today at 6:15 p.m.–