Success·DEIBillionaire MacKenzie Scott doubles down on DEI with $42 million donationBy Ashley LutzBy Ashley LutzExecutive Director, Editorial GrowthAshley LutzExecutive Director, Editorial GrowthAshley Lutz is an executive editor at Fortune, overseeing the Success, Well, syndication, and social teams.
She was previously an editorial leader at Bankrate, The Points Guy, and Insider, and a reporter at Bloomberg News.
Ashley is a graduate of Ohio University's Scripps School of Journalism.SEE FULL BIO Getty ImagesMacKenzie Scott’s round of gifts sends a message: Her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion remains intact—and she’s doubling down on it through major, unrestricted support for scholarship viders serving students of color and underrepresented communities.
Recent donations include a $42 million gift to 10,000 Degrees, the Bay Area nonfit expanding college access for low-income and largely non-white students, alongside eight-figure commitments to Native student scholars and HBCU endowments through UNCF.
Standing by DEI Scott’s $42 million donation to 10,000 Degrees marks the largest single gift in the organization’s 45-year history, reinforcing her strategy of funding opportunity pipelines for first-generation and low-income students, many of whom are students of color. Her recent giving also includes tens of millions for Native Forward, the nation’s largest scholarship vider for Native students, signaling continued backing of racial-equity-centered education funds amid broader sector retrenchment on DEI. The pattern aligns with Scott’s hallmark of large, trust-based grants to equity-focused organizations, viding flexible capital to scale access and persistence for underrepresented learners.
The UNCF anchor gift In September, Scott donated $70 million to UNCF as part of a campaign to bolster pooled endowments across 37 HBCUs, a move designed to create durable revenue s and narrow historic wealth and funding gaps versus predominantly white institutions. The gift—one of Scott’s largest—builds on her earlier support for Black higher education and reflects a multi-year focus on education equity as a cornerstone of her philanthropy.
How Scott gives Scott’s model emphasizes speed, scale, and minimal restrictions: large grants dered quickly and without strings, allowing grantees to deploy funds where needs are greatest and opportunities are most immediate. In 2024, she formalized part of her apach with an open-call cess via Yield Giving, while retaining the element of surprise that has made her philanthropy unusually catalytic for recipients unaccustomed to such flexible major gifts. Track record and totals Over the last five years, Scott has given more than $19 billion to thousands of organizations, with 2024 alone accounting for roughly $2 billion across nearly 200 grantees focused on economic security, housing, jobs, child development and postsecondary education, and health care. Her portfolio of large recipients spans affordable housing, health equity, education, and financial inclusion, with repeat funding to ven performers and a growing list of equity-centered institutions. No-strings-attached Fortune’s previous reporting on Scott’s UNCF gift details its endowment-building design and the no-strings-attached nature of her grants, which are int to accelerate institutional capacity at HBCUs over the long term. Scott’s $19 billion, five-year giving arc includes an operational shift toward “mission‑aligned” alongside grant making to multiply social impact, especially in economic mobility and education. What’s next in her giving plan Scott, who pledged to give away billions ing her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has signaled an expansion into mission-aligned investments that mirror her grant priorities, aiming to “withdraw” capital from portfolios that directly advance economic mobility, education, and health—then amplify that impact again through unrestricted nonfit grants. Expect continued emphasis on trust-based funding, repeat gifts to high-performing grantees, and endowment-strengthening contributions that turn equity goals into durable institutional assets, particularly across HBCUs and scholarship ecosystems serving underrepresented students.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh.
CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of . Apply for an invitation.