tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/mackenzie-scott-93924/articlesMacKenzie Scott – The Conversation2024-03-05T14:34:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235372024-03-05T14:34:39Z2024-03-05T14:34:39ZDonations by top 50 US donors fell again in 2023, sliding to $12B − Mike Bloomberg, Phil and Penny Knight, and Michael and Susan Dell led the list of biggest givers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578433/original/file-20240227-22-ys3u32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3008%2C1868&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Penny Knight and Phil Knight were the second-largest givers of 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.wishtv.com/news/education/indiana-lawmakers-join-gop-led-states-trying-to-target-college-tenure/">Michael Hickey/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The top 50 American individuals and couples who gave or pledged the most to charity in 2023 committed US$12 billion to foundations, universities, hospitals and more. That total was 28% below an inflation-adjusted $16.5 billion in 2022, according to the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/page/philanthropy-50">Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>’s latest annual tally of these donations.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VYsdAEIAAAAJ&hl=en">David Campbell</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c__VVwsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Angela R. Logan</a> and <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/moody-michael.html">Michael Moody</a>, three scholars of philanthropy, to assess the significance of these gifts and to consider what they indicate about the state of charitable giving in the United States.</em></p>
<h2>What trends stand out overall?</h2>
<p><strong>David Campbell:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/donations-by-top-50-us-donors-dropped-sharply-to-16-billion-in-2022-bill-gates-elon-musk-mike-bloomberg-and-warren-buffett-lead-the-list-of-biggest-givers-199732">As was the case in 2022</a>, more than one-third of these big gifts – $4.4 billion – went to donors’ personal foundations. Another $764.3 million flowed into donor-advised funds. Also known as DAFs, these charitable savings accounts make it possible for donors to reserve assets such as cash, stocks and bonds for future charitable gifts.</p>
<p>That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that a significant amount of the money these wealthy Americans technically gave away in 2023 didn’t get in the hands of charities right away. And while foundations must <a href="https://www.ncfp.org/2008/10/15/what-is-the-5-payout-rule/">give away or spend 5% of their assets every year</a>, there are no such requirements for DAFs.</p>
<p>Many of the same wealthy people make this list every time, and they stick with a few main priorities. Media mogul and former New York City Mayor <a href="https://www.bloomberg.org/public-health/">Mike Bloomberg</a>, for example, puts a lot of his charitable money into public health.</p>
<p><strong>Michael Moody:</strong> One thing that stands out for me is what’s missing. This list doesn’t include some billionaires known to give significant amounts of money to charity, and it doesn’t reflect all the ways that the wealthiest Americans seek to do good aside from giving to charitable organizations. </p>
<p>The list leaves out anonymous donors, such as the one who in 2023 <a href="https://www.mcpherson.edu/2023/07/mcpherson-college-establishes-1-billion-endowment/">catapulted the endowment of McPherson</a>, a small college in Kansas, past the $1.5 billion mark. It also omits a very prominent billionaire donor: author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.</p>
<p>Scott openly discusses her giving in periodic essays posted to the internet, including one in December 2023 when she described the <a href="https://yieldgiving.com/essays/giving-update/">more than $2.1 billion she had given</a> in the previous 12 months to <a href="https://yieldgiving.com/gifts?essay=20231206">360 nonprofits</a>.</p>
<p>However, this sort of self-disclosure doesn’t fit the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/how-the-chronicle-compiled-its-list-of-the-top-50-donors-of-2022">Chronicle of Philanthropy’s methodology</a>. To avoid counting the same donation twice, it acknowledges only those gifts that go directly to charities or are made to foundations and other intermediaries such as DAFs. Without specific information from Scott or her representatives about which vehicles she uses and how much money she funnels through them each year, they leave her off the list. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/investing/elon-musk-charity-donation/index.html">probable omission is Elon Musk</a>, one of the richest people in the world, who leads several companies and <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/elon-musk-donated-1.95-billion-in-tesla-stock-in-2022">designated billions for charity in 2021 and 2022</a>. He has said little about his giving. Details about gifts he’s made to his foundation or other charities usually surface only through mandatory legal filings. Also, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-says-spacex-tesla-neuralink-boring-company-are-philanthropy-2022-4?r=US&IR=T">Musk has argued that his companies</a> are his best “philanthropy.”</p>
<p>Similarly, other billionaires who regularly make this list also say they use money to do good in ways beyond the charitable gifts summarized here.</p>
<p>John Arnold, who made a fortune by starting and running a hedge fund, and his wife, Laura Arnold, as well as Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, often point to ways they pursue their philanthropic goals through for-profit means, as well as through gifts to their foundations and DAFs. <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/laura-and-john-arnold-foundation-to-restructure-as-llc">They reserve large chunks of their fortunes</a> in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/technology/zuckerbergs-philanthropy-uses-llc-for-more-control.html">limited liability companies</a>, which are private corporations that they use to either make charitable donations or invest in what they believe are socially responsible companies.</p>
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<h2>What surprises you about the biggest donors?</h2>
<p><strong>Campbell:</strong> Last year, <a href="https://theconversation.com/donations-by-top-50-us-donors-dropped-sharply-to-16-billion-in-2022-bill-gates-elon-musk-mike-bloomberg-and-warren-buffett-lead-the-list-of-biggest-givers-199732">I predicted</a> that Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, would make the 2023 list and she did. French Gates was the ninth-largest donor of 2023, while her former husband was No. 16.</p>
<p>French Gates has charted her own course by creating <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/melinda-french-gates-effort-aims-to-accelerate-womens-power-and-influence?sra=true">Pivotal Ventures</a>, a limited liability company. But she has continued to give primarily by funding the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the biggest private source of <a href="https://pages.devex.com/rs/685-KBL-765/images/the-top-10-foundations-funding-development.pdf">funding for international development</a>.</p>
<p>French Gates indicated that she <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/melinda-french-gates-no-longer-pledges-bulk-of-her-wealth-to-gates-foundation-11643808602">plans to branch out</a> with her philanthropy. But she and Bill <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/leadership?division=Co-chairs%20and%20Board%20of%20Trustees">still co-chair the foundation</a> bearing their names.</p>
<p><strong>Angela Logan</strong> Most <a href="https://www.dafresearchcollaborative.org/national-study-dafs7">donor-advised funds aren’t massive</a>. Only 1% of those accounts held balances of $10 million as of late 2021, according to a recent report. Yet, some of the biggest donors of 2023 deposited far more than that.</p>
<p>Tech executive Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, have infused theirs with $486 million, while Phil Knight, the founder of the athletic apparel and footwear company Nike, and his wife, Penny Knight, placed $104 million in their DAF. <a href="https://www.dell.org/what-we-do/">Both couples</a> also have <a href="https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/knight-foundation,911791788/">their own foundations</a>.</p>
<p>I believe it’s worth watching to see whether in the future more of the biggest donors will take this route, rather than creating their own family foundations.</p>
<p>One concern is that there is <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/an-unlikely-event-the-israel-hamas-war-could-finally-spark-daf-reform">no obligation for donors to disclose gifts</a> they make through DAFs, another <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/public-disclosure-and-availability-of-exempt-organizations-returns-and-applications-requirements-for-private-foundations">difference between them and foundations</a>.</p>
<p>If more of the biggest donors take the DAF route, rather than forming foundations or giving directly to charities, the public would lose access to information about where philanthropic dollars go. And that could potentially further erode trust in charitable giving and nonprofits.</p>
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<h2>What concerns do you have?</h2>
<p><strong>Campbell:</strong> While these gifts are formidable, I still think about those who are not showing up. Only 23 of the top givers are from the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/">Forbes 400 list</a> of the wealthiest Americans.</p>
<p>I find it surprising that many of those with the most to give away are outflanked by others’ generosity. Only 13 of the year’s top donors have signed <a href="https://givingpledge.org/">the Giving Pledge</a>, a “promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.” This fact leads me to wonder what the long-term plans are for many of the other top donors.</p>
<p>Will they sign to the Giving Pledge? What makes them willing to give so much today but not commit for tomorrow? </p>
<p><strong>Logan</strong> Similarly, I’m struck by the lack of diversity in terms of age among the top givers. More than half of them are over 80. Only one person listed among the youngest members of the Forbes 400 list, Zuckerberg, also made the cut.</p>
<p>Even more intriguing is that, in addition to Zuckerberg, five more of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/savannahborn/2023/10/03/the-youngest-billionaires-on-the-2023-forbes-400-list/">youngest members of the Forbes 400</a> have signed the Giving Pledge: Airbnb co-founders Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk and Brian Chesky; Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase; and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. </p>
<p>What makes them willing to commit so much tomorrow but less inclined to give as much today? </p>
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<h2>What do you expect to see in 2024 and beyond?</h2>
<p><strong>Logan:</strong> I feel as though this has been stated every four years since I turned 18, but the 2024 U.S. presidential election will be the most consequential in the nation’s history.</p>
<p>I suspect that in this election cycle, donors are putting more of their philanthropic dollars toward preserving democracy, voter education and the causes that matter to Americans on the left, right and center.</p>
<p>Additionally, even if the conflict between Israel and Hamas ends soon, I expect to see an increase in giving in 2024 to combat both antisemitism and Islamophobia and for that to continue going forward. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/29/us/hate-crimes-antisemitism-anti-muslim-dg/index.html">Hate-related crimes</a>, including those targeting Muslims and Jews, have been rising in the U.S. since 2014. And they have surged since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched its war on Gaza. That could drive further giving along the lines of the $100 million that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft provided his <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/robert-kraft-patriots-israel-anti-semitism-0cf70cb4">Foundation to Combat Antisemitism</a> in 2023.</p>
<p><strong>Moody:</strong> I expect that most of the biggest gifts will keep going to foundations and DAFs, as well as higher ed and medical causes. That pattern seems to hold steady, regardless of whatever new culture war, political fight or international conflict is in the headlines.</p>
<p>However, as Angela Logan notes, there are hints that we’ll see more major gifts focused on issues like ethnic conflict, bigotry or racial justice and uplift. One notable example of this in 2023 was the Knights’ <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/phil-knight-invests-400-million-in-portland-s-albina-neighborhood">$400 million pledge to revive a struggling Black neighborhood</a> in Portland, Oregon.</p>
<p>But the world of philanthropy can be surprising sometimes. Donors can make choices no one saw coming, and new donors can burst on the scene. With <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/30/business/ubs-billionaires-report/index.html">new billionaires emerging</a> at a swift pace, it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen next.</p>
<p>Consider, for instance, the news announced in late February 2024 that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/nyregion/albert-einstein-college-medicine-bronx-donation.html">Ruth Gottesman donated $1 billion</a> to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.</p>
<p>Gottesman is a former professor at that medical school. Her husband, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/business/dealbook/david-s-gottesman-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1">David “Sandy” Gottesman</a>, was a billionaire investor who died in 2022 without putting any strings on what she should do with their fortune. This gift broke with some common conventions.</p>
<p>While she did stipulate that the funds should be be used to make the school tuition-free forever, she didn’t tie the gift to <a href="https://charitylawyerblog.com/2021/06/28/charity-naming-rights-how-to-do-it-right/">naming rights</a>. She insisted, instead, that the college keep its name. Initially, she even <a href="https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/dr-ruth-gottesman-just-gave-1-billion-to-make-tuition-free-at-this-bronx-medical-school-it-comes-with-a-surprising-catch.html">wanted to give the money anonymously</a>. </p>
<p>Will other big donors now follow suit?</p>
<p><em>The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided funding for The Conversation U.S. and provides funding for The Conversation internationally. Arnold Ventures provides funding for The Conversation U.S.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Campbell is the Chair of the Board of the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela R. Logan is the Board President of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Moody does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three philanthropy scholars discuss several trends in giving by the wealthiest Americans highlighted in this yearly report. Among them: Much of this money doesn’t go to charities right away.David Campbell, Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkAngela R. Logan, Associate Teaching Professor of Management & Organization, St. Andre Bessette Academic Director of the Master of Nonprofit Administration, University of Notre DameMichael Moody, Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946152022-11-16T13:27:50Z2022-11-16T13:27:50ZFTX bankruptcy is bad news for the charities that crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried generously supported<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495432/original/file-20221115-25-iu086m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=116%2C125%2C5721%2C3431&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has lost the fortune he aimed to give away. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sam-bankman-fried-speaks-onstage-during-the-first-annual-news-photo/1241501470?adppopup=true">Craig Barritt/Getty Images for CARE For Special Children</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>FTX, an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/15/1136641651/ftx-bankruptcy-sam-bankman-fried-ftt-crypto-cryptocurrency-binance">exchange for trading cryptocurrencies</a>, quickly became bankrupt and defunct in November 2022. Its founder, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23458837/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-sbf-downfall-explained">Sam Bankman-Fried</a>, is broke, and the 30-year-old former billionaire <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/186175/criminal-charges-against-sbf-on-the-table-after-ftxs-epic-collapse">could be</a> in serious <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/could-sam-bankman-fried-prison-171405966.html">legal trouble</a> for his alleged financial improprieties. The Conversation asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Rap6TboAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Brian Mittendorf</a>, an accounting scholar at The Ohio State University, to explain the significance of FTX’s implosion for philanthropy and the nonprofits Bankman-Fried supported.</em></p>
<h2>What was the connection between FTX and philanthropy?</h2>
<p>Though FTX was a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/technology/ftx-binance-crypto-explained.html">cryptocurrency exchange</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/15/ftx-cryptocurrency-sam-bankman-fried">Bankman-Fried</a> viewed it as something more: a <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/11/15/what-is-effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-wealth-career/">vehicle to change the world</a> through giving. <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sam-bankman-frieds-philanthropic-fund-halts-donations-amid-ftx-collapse-and-questions-about-legitimacy-11668192531">Bankman-Fried often noted that his goal</a> for his business was to make money in order to donate it to support a variety of social causes like <a href="https://ftxfoundation.org/global-health-welfare/">global health</a> and <a href="https://puck.news/the-s-b-f-pandemic/">investigative journalism</a>. Bankman-Fried was also a major donor to politicians in the Democratic Party, while FTX co-founder <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/15/23459268/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-bankruptcy-crypto-lobbying-washington">Ryan Salame gave millions to Republicans</a>.</p>
<p>Bankman-Fried was an acolyte of Scottish philosopher <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/the-reluctant-prophet-of-effective-altruism">William MacAskill</a> and the <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/11/15/what-is-effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-wealth-career/">effective altruism</a> movement, which emphasizes causes that its supporters believe can do the most good. Many effective altruists “<a href="https://fortune.com/2022/11/15/what-is-effective-altruism-sam-bankman-fried-wealth-career/">earn to give</a>,” trying to make as much money as they can in order to maximize their charitable impact. In recent years, a growing number of effective altruists have also championed “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/the-reluctant-prophet-of-effective-altruism">longtermism</a>” – the view that giving to causes that donors believe will greatly benefit future generations is a higher priority than meeting current needs.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://ftx.com/giving">lines between FTX</a>, the <a href="https://ftxfoundation.org/about/">FTX Foundation</a> – Bankman-Fried’s philanthropic collective – and a longtermist offshoot of that foundation called the <a href="https://ftxfoundation.org/future-fund/">FTX Future Fund</a> were blurry. The promises for big giving, however, were clear, with <a href="https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=445">Bankman-Fried pledging</a> to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-04-03/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-s-crypto-billionaire-who-wants-to-give-his-fortune-away?leadSource=uverify%20wall">donate the bulk of his fortune to assorted causes</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s the most immediate fallout of FTX’s demise for charities?</h2>
<p>Soon after FTX collapsed, the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/10/ftxs-effective-altruism-future-fund-team-resigns">FTX Future Fund’s entire staff resigned</a>. </p>
<p>The team cited concerns about the <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/11/11/team-behind-sam-bankman-fried-charity-ftx-future-fund-have-quit-over-possible-deception-or-dishonesty/">legitimacy and integrity</a> of FTX’s operations. By quitting as a group, the staffers signaled that the fund had halted disbursements, while also attempting to distance the broader effective altruism movement from its most famous adherent. </p>
<p>Though Bankman-Fried and his FTX-affiliated philanthropic endeavors were only getting started toward meeting their lofty ambitions, many charities and other organizations had already received funding, and many had <a href="https://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/bankman-fried-family-donates-5-million-to-propublica">obtained further promises for future funding</a>. Those commitments now seem unlikely to ever be disbursed. Many <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ftx-bankruptcy-also-endangers-founders-philanthropic-gifts/2022/11/14/1f8f43d0-63ea-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html">recipients, including ProPublica</a> – a nonprofit investigative media outlet – are no longer counting on receiving those funds.</p>
<p>All signs point to much of that promised giving being <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2022/11/14/sam-bankman-fried-promised-millions-to-nonprofits-research-groups-thats-not-going-too-well-now/">unlikely to materialize</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="FTX app displayed on a mobile device" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495500/original/file-20221115-22-7x6od4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">FTX logo and mobile app ads seen November 10, 2022, one day before the cryptocurrency exchange initiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photo-illustration-the-ftx-logo-and-mobile-app-news-photo/1440504670?adppopup=true">Leon Neal/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Can charities be forced to relinquish any donations tied to FTX that they have received?</h2>
<p>What might happen to the money that had already been disbursed is less clear.</p>
<p>The possibility of it being “clawed back” from the causes that received funds from FTX affiliates or Bankman-Fried himself is <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o8B9kCkwteSqZg9zc/thoughts-on-legal-concerns-surrounding-the-ftx-situation">real but less likely</a>. Funds given in the 90 days prior to bankruptcy are the <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/crypto-company-s-collapse-strands-scientists">most likely</a> to be vulnerable to claims in bankruptcy, but other gifts could be at risk too, if the activities of Bankman-Fried or FTX are <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/should-charities-be-protected-from-the-claws-of-fraudulent-transfer-laws/">found to be fraudulent</a>. Even in that case, however, charitable gifts are given <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/senate-bill/1244">extra protection</a>, limiting the likelihood of such a “claw back.”</p>
<h2>What will the FTX fallout mean for cryptocurrency donations?</h2>
<p>Charities have become more <a href="https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2022/08/31/how-crypto-is-changing-philanthropy">adept at receiving cryptocurrency donations</a> over the years, primarily due to a <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/will-2022-be-a-boom-year-for-cryptocurrency-philanthropy-102241">multiyear boom</a> in crypto markets and <a href="https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/giving-account/what-you-can-donate/donating-bitcoin-to-charity.html">tax considerations</a> that can make it advantageous for crypto investors to <a href="https://theconversation.com/charities-take-digital-money-now-and-the-risks-that-go-with-it-103983">give away some of their large, untaxed gains</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, that boom gave way to a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/investing/bitcoin-crypto-ftx-gold/index.html">crypto bust</a>, <a href="https://www.wfae.org/2022-11-14/how-ftxs-fallout-impacts-the-world-of-cryptocurrency">which has only gotten worse</a> in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse. I believe it will reduce the flow of crypto to charities to a trickle – at least for now.</p>
<p>The FTX collapse also highlights the inherent risks charities face when they hold onto crypto assets and engage with these largely unregulated markets. The <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/silicon-valley-community-foundation-awarded-2.2-billion-in-2021">Silicon Valley Community Foundation</a>, a charity which pools resources for the benefit of northern California, has seen fluctuations in values of its crypto holdings to the tune of <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Silicon-Valley-foundation-s-crypto-assets-14029709.php">billions of dollars</a>. Other charities have shown themselves eager to <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/04/05/how-crypto-is-changing-philanthropy/">join the craze</a> as well. The FTX fiasco may prompt charities to think twice before seeking crypto gifts or holding onto cryptocurrencies instead of liquidating them as soon as possible.</p>
<h2>What does this whole episode say about philanthropy?</h2>
<p>Though the failures at FTX may not indicate similar failures are imminent, either in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/cryptocom-ceo-says-will-prove-naysayers-wrong-amid-ftx-contagion-fears.html">crypto markets</a> or in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/business/ftx-effective-altruism.html">effective altruism</a> efforts, they do highlight some of the risks. </p>
<p>FTX operated in a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/14/crypto-exchange-ftx-regulation-bankman-fried-00066815">lightly regulated</a> environment, and Bankman-Fried’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-04-03/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-s-crypto-billionaire-who-wants-to-give-his-fortune-away">brand of effective altruism</a> was praised for being both visionary and disruptive. Together, these features highlighted an ethos of philanthropic giving that, by <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/11/sam-bankman-fried-altruism-failed">favoring big bets</a> and bold goals, adopted the big-tech mantra of <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/move-fast-break-things-facebook-motto/">moving fast and breaking things</a>.</p>
<p>In my view, FTX’s epic failure highlights the value of being <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/11/10/ftx-collapse-sparks-alarm-from-us-lawmakers/">transparent and accountable</a>, both in business endeavors and giving. Minding the nitty-gritty details, heeding regulatory obligations and <a href="https://theconversation.com/donor-beware-pause-before-you-give-to-any-cause-188117">giving to established organizations</a> may seem humdrum, but it’s worth the trouble and is surely more “effective” than the alternative in the long run.</p>
<p>As details about FTX’s demise came to light, a very different new and highly visible megadonor briefly made one of her intermittent appearances in the news. <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/of-and-by-104c6ff53ff0">MacKenzie Scott</a>, a novelist and the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, announced on Nov. 14, 2022, that she had <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/business/mackenzie-scott-donations">given nearly US$2 billion</a> in the previous seven months to charities that work directly on acute community needs, like many local chapters of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the National Urban League.</p>
<p>Although Scott isn’t operating a traditional foundation and she has bucked many philanthropic conventions with her <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mackenzie-scotts-12-billion-in-gifts-to-charity-reflect-an-uncommon-trust-in-the-groups-she-supports-173496">emphasis on social justice</a>, her approach and record stand in stark contrast to Bankman-Fried’s.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Mittendorf does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The founder of the now-defunct exchange for trading cryptocurrencies believed in ‘earning to give.’Brian Mittendorf, Fisher Designated Professor of Accounting, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1850862022-06-21T13:20:05Z2022-06-21T13:20:05ZAmericans gave a near-record $485 billion to charity in 2021, despite surging inflation rates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469584/original/file-20220617-24-c0era.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C0%2C3326%2C1897&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charitable donations fund a wide array of nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/volunteers-participate-in-a-habitat-for-humanity-build-on-news-photo/1154518488?adppopup=true"> John Wolfsohn/Getty Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Boosted by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/30/stock-marketfutures-open-to-close-news.html">a strong year for stocks</a> and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2022/01/27/us-economy-2021-gdp-growth/9236443002/">swift economic growth</a>, U.S. giving in 2021 totaled a <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/news-events/news-item/giving-usa:--total-u.s.-charitable-giving-remained-strong-in-2021,-reaching-$484.85-billion.html?id=392">near-record US$485 billion</a>.</p>
<p>Individuals, foundations, estates and corporations gave more to charity in 2021 than before the pandemic, according to the latest annual Giving USA report from the <a href="https://givingusa.org/">Giving USA Foundation</a>, released in partnership with the <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/">Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI</a>.</p>
<p>Giving was 0.7% below the inflation-adjusted <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-gave-a-record-471-billion-to-charity-in-2020-amid-concerns-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-job-losses-and-racial-justice-161489">all-time high of $488 billion in 2020</a> – when donors responded to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensuing recession and an outpouring of concern over racial injustices.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&user=KbjWCpcAAAAJ">two of the lead</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=plWgMBcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">researchers</a> who produced this report, we found that inflation changed how far each charitable dollar went in 2021. We also saw that a significant percentage of giving came from extremely large gifts and that many charities whose 2020 donations declined may have experienced a rebound.</p>
<h2>Did inflation affect giving?</h2>
<p>Inflation – <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/16/everyone-knows-inflation-is-on-fire-heres-whats-really-fueling-it.html">the rate at which purchasing power</a> for food, rent and energy costs declines – was higher in 2021 than it has been in recent years. </p>
<p>When inflation heats up, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/high-inflation-leaves-food-banks-struggling-to-meet-needs">charities need more money to keep up with rising costs</a>. Household budgets can also get strained by rising costs of living. But charitable giving doesn’t automatically fall when inflation rates rise. In <a href="https://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-cpi-consumer-price-index-1980-1989/">1988 and 1989</a>, for example, inflation exceeded 4% annually, but <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=226702">charitable giving grew</a> in both years – even when adjusted for inflation.</p>
<p>However, higher inflation, particularly over time, can influence other economic trends that are more likely to influence how much money is donated. Those changes, in turn, can lead to declines in giving.</p>
<p>With inflation running at a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/consumer-prices-up-8-5-percent-for-year-ended-march-2022.htm">much faster clip in 2022 than 2021</a>, we’re keeping an eye on any effects it may have on giving until rates subside. </p>
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<h2>Role of megadonors</h2>
<p>Individual donors gave $327 billion in 2021, or two-thirds of all charitable dollars. Ten gifts of $450 million or more, which totaled $15 billion, accounted for roughly 5% of all individual giving.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bald man with a thick graying beard and a bright yellow and orange tie-dye shirt looks off into the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469585/original/file-20220617-16-rqv41r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was among the nation’s biggest donors in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jack-dorsey-creator-co-founder-and-chairman-of-twitter-and-news-photo/1321753242?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the largest donations made in 2021 went to <a href="https://theconversation.com/charitable-gifts-from-donor-advised-funds-favor-education-and-religion-171793">donor-advised funds</a>, financial accounts known as DAFs. </p>
<p>Two billionaires who took that route were Twitter co-founder and former CEO <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-philanthropy-50/#id=details_628_2021">Jack Dorsey</a> and SpaceX and Tesla CEO <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-saved-big-on-taxes-by-giving-away-a-ton-of-his-tesla-stock-172036">Elon Musk</a>.</p>
<p>Donors who transfer money into DAFs get big tax deductions right away but can decide which causes to support later. That’s similar to what happens when someone <a href="https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/what-is-a-foundation/">moves wealth into a foundation</a>.</p>
<p>But while <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/private-foundations">foundations are required to report every grant they make</a>, all the money distributed to a particular charity from DAFs that are held at the same DAF-sponsoring organization is lumped together. This makes it impossible to separate out one individual’s support for specific causes. As a consequence, some donors may prefer to give through a DAF rather than a foundation for the anonymity.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html">MacKenzie Scott</a> has given <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mackenzie-scotts-12-billion-in-gifts-to-charity-reflect-an-uncommon-trust-in-the-groups-she-supports-173496">at least $12 billion to charity</a> since her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos without starting a foundation, and instead <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/04/06/mackenzie-scott-elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-charity-donor-advised-funds/">relies partly on donor-advised funds</a>. In 2021, she continued to quickly channel large sums of money into nonprofits, especially those assisting people of color and underfunded communities.</p>
<p>We expect transparency to be an important issue for our research in the future. As megagifts grow as a share of individual giving, it is important to understand how much megadonors are giving and where the dollars are going.</p>
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<h2>A rebound for the arts</h2>
<p>Giving to the arts, culture and humanities rose by 22% in 2021 as many museums, theaters, ballet companies and other arts groups resumed in-person events and found ways to continue to make use of hybrid events. That growth, the biggest for any of the nine categories we track, marked a sharp reversal from 2020, when those gifts fell 7%. </p>
<p>Similarly, gifts related to health, a category that includes donations to hospitals, grew 2.9% in 2021 after a 6.9% decline a year earlier.</p>
<p>Conversely, gifts slated for colleges, universities and other educational causes fell 7.2% in 2021, following a 15% increase in 2020.</p>
<p>Overall, giving in 2021 stayed well above pre-pandemic levels. The total donated was at least 5% higher than in 2019 for seven of the nine categories we track. </p>
<p><iframe id="fpzii" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fpzii/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some of the largest donations made in 2021 went to donor-advised funds, financial accounts known as DAFs.Anna Pruitt, Associate Director of Research, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and Managing Editor, Giving USA, IUPUIJon Bergdoll, Applied Statistician of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770302022-05-04T12:34:19Z2022-05-04T12:34:19ZSome funders are embracing ‘trust-based philanthropy’ by giving money without lots of obligations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460837/original/file-20220502-13-s51gi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4184%2C2573&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taking grantees' word that they will spend money responsibly frees up time and can strengthen relationships.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/businesspeople-making-handshakes-across-line-on-royalty-free-image/912015932">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/explainers/how-do-foundations-make-grantmaking-decisions">most foundations</a>, the <a href="https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/board-roles-and-responsibilities">board of directors</a> and top executives set all funding priorities. Nonprofits seeking money from those funders, in turn, must demonstrate an intention to do work that conforms to those priorities. The same system prevails with many individual wealthy donors. </p>
<p>Any nonprofit awarded a grant must follow the funder’s priorities and comply with all of its <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/grants-by-private-foundations-expenditure-responsibility">reporting requirements</a> – which, with some foundations, can be <a href="https://nonprofitaf.com/2016/07/we-need-to-stop-treating-nonprofits-the-way-society-treats-poor-people/">very time-consuming</a>.</p>
<p>Funders, rather than the communities they aim to support, <a href="https://www.socialinnovationforum.org/blog/reflections-promise-trust-based-philanthropy">hold most of the power in this arrangement</a>. That can steer priorities in the wrong direction because the organizations that deal primarily or exclusively with those issues are probably more aware of what’s going on and what works best.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=fsg7wOcAAAAJ">I’m studying</a> the growing number of foundations bucking this traditional model. Instead of calling all the shots, these funders are embracing what’s known as <a href="https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org/overview">trust-based philanthropy</a>. This approach emphasizes building collaborative relationships in which funders are accountable to their grantees, not just the other way around. </p>
<h2>How this works</h2>
<p>You might think that a great deal of paperwork is necessary due to tax regulations. But the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/pre-grant-inquiry">Internal Revenue Service</a> actually gives foundations and other big donors considerable discretion in terms of how to manage their application process and reporting requirements, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-saved-big-on-taxes-by-giving-away-a-ton-of-his-tesla-stock-172036">without jeopardizing tax breaks</a> that can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars or more.</p>
<p>While cumbersome grant reporting requirements arose for the sake of accountability, some experts argue that they can <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_nonprofit_starvation_cycle">unnecessarily burden nonprofits</a> and <a href="https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1177/0899764002250005">privilege organizations</a> whose programs and priorities align with donors’ priorities. This approach <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/overcoming_the_racial_bias_in_philanthropic_funding">can result in organizations led by people of color</a> getting less money. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.genevaglobal.com/blog/your-reading-list-trust-based-philanthropy">Trust-based philanthropy</a> can be executed in a variety of ways. It draws on ideas <a href="https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/historical-case-trust-based-philanthropy/">that are as old as philanthropy itself, like alms</a> – <a href="https://missionimpact.svdmissions.org/what-is-almsgiving">giving money or goods to the poor</a>.</p>
<p>Trust-based practices acknowledge the deeply rooted <a href="https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org/stories/bridge-to-equity">history of racial inequity in philanthropy</a>, a history in which <a href="https://resource.rockarch.org/story/timeline-a-century-of-american-philanthropys-engagement-with-race-and-racism/">people of color had been actively marginalized</a> and in which <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/06/the-problem-with-color-blind-philanthropy">social interventions had often been designed with white people in mind</a>. Through relationship building, collaboration and learning, trust-based practices seek to <a href="https://hirschphilanthropy.com/news/three-learnings-about-trust-based-philanthropy-in-an-age-of-mistrust/">dismantle the inequitable social systems that organized philanthropy helped sow</a>.</p>
<p>The idea gained steam in 2018, when a group of foundations joined together under the banner of the <a href="https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org/our-story">Trust-Based Philanthropy Project</a> to make the sector more inclusive. Since then, experts have sought to spell out best practices and emphasize racial equity as a fundamental principle. </p>
<h2>A different mindset</h2>
<p>The philosophy behind trust-based philanthropy is about changing funders’ core organizational culture and values. In practice, trust-based philanthropy can take many different forms.</p>
<p>It may include <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-unrestricted-funding-two-philanthropy-experts-explain-164589">unrestricted funding</a>, meaning that money is provided to charities that choose how to spend it. </p>
<p>Funders may also limit application and reporting requirements or <a href="https://www.ncfp.org/2021/11/23/trust-based-philanthropy-shifting-power-to-communities/">make the reporting process a two-way conversation</a> between the funder and the cause they’re supporting. </p>
<p>Another option is to let <a href="https://participatorygrantmaking.issuelab.org/?publisher=&wikitopic_categories=&keywords=&pubdate_start_year=1&pubdate_end_year=1&sort=&categories=&offset=0&pageSize=12">grantees and communities that are supposed to benefit from funding</a> weigh in on decision-making processes around the grant-making.</p>
<p>But, to be sure, trust-based philanthropy is <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shaady-salehi-tackling-common-misconceptions-about/id1576770635?i=1000533875047">not about ending grantee accountability or flouting IRS requirements</a>.</p>
<h2>An unexpected boost</h2>
<p>Trust-based practices accelerated at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, as <a href="https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1177%2F0899764020966047">foundations scrambled</a> to quickly meet the needs of the groups they already supported, as well as some new organizations. Funders also had to immediately revise their requirements, some of which were no longer practical or feasible, and they needed to have a better sense of the challenges facing specific communities. </p>
<p>For example, in lieu of the kind of annual reporting process most foundations require, the <a href="https://sylfoundation.org/about/">Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation</a>, which funds groups that help low-income immigrant and refugee communities in Washington state, asked grantees to provide a single paragraph describing the work they were doing and how it could best assist them going forward. It focused on building supportive relationships with the groups it funds to better help those in need. </p>
<p>Since then, the Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation has also provided grantees with several options for reporting. They can choose to follow up on funding over the telephone, submit a grant report that they wrote for another foundation, or write a brief paragraph discussing their progress and ongoing needs. </p>
<p>But that foundation has tapped trust-based approaches since 2018.</p>
<p>Rachel Allen, its vice president, indicates that one of the ways that this shows up is a focus on reflection and learning. In determining what information they need from grantees, the foundation’s leaders ask themselves, “What do we need to learn? How can we do better?” </p>
<p>Other funders that have embraced this approach include the <a href="https://durfee.org/who-we-are/our-approach">Durfee</a>, <a href="https://satterberg.org/trust-based-philanthropy/">Satterberg</a> and <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/607452f8ad01dc4dd54fc41f/t/614e0606aa3954731ff29daf/1632503303827/Hub+ONE+SJF+TBPP+Case+Study.pdf">Stryker Johnston</a> foundations. Together, they have about <a href="https://fconline-foundationcenter-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/fdo-search/member-index/">$600 million in total assets</a>. They made over $73 million in grants in 2019.</p>
<p>Some high-profile megadonors, like <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">the philanthropist</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mackenzie-scotts-12-billion-in-gifts-to-charity-reflect-an-uncommon-trust-in-the-groups-she-supports-173496">MacKenzie Scott</a>, are also taking trust-based approaches.</p>
<p>It’s unclear how much money foundations and donors give away via trust-based approaches, largely because the scope and scale of this approach to giving has not been systematically studied until now. Further, the variety of trust-based philanthropic tools, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-unrestricted-funding-two-philanthropy-experts-explain-164589">unrestricted funding</a>, <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/47140">participatory governance and grant-making</a>, makes it hard to identify them all as the same broader trend. </p>
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<p>Nevertheless, trust-based philanthropic practices are clearly <a href="https://www.ncfp.org/2021/11/23/trust-based-philanthropy-shifting-power-to-communities/">growing more popular</a>, a change that <a href="https://nonprofitaf.com/2020/01/trust-based-philanthropy-imagining-better-more-effective-partnerships-between-funders-and-nonprofits/">many nonprofit advocates welcome</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Finchum-Mason does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This growing trend aims to shift some of the power funders typically wield to the groups getting their money.Emily Finchum-Mason, Doctoral candidate in Public Policy and Management, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734962022-03-28T12:36:54Z2022-03-28T12:36:54ZHow MacKenzie Scott’s $12 billion in gifts to charity reflect an uncommon trust in the groups she supports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454181/original/file-20220324-21-7b17cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=156%2C18%2C1795%2C1223&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The top donor is challenging conventional wisdom about giving.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-and-his-wife-mackenzie-bezos-poses-as-news-photo/950795948">Jorg Carstensen/dpa/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9">MacKenzie Scott</a> disclosed on March 23, 2022, that she had given <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-philanthropy-aa2fb209ae9915740f563de6611a0509">US$3.9 billion to 465 nonprofits</a> in the previous nine months. These <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">no-strings-attached donations</a> bring the total she has given away in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">past two years</a> to at least $12 billion. We asked <a href="https://blog.philanthropy.iupui.edu/2022/03/01/freeman-named-winner-of-2022-dan-david-prize/">philanthropy historian Tyrone Freeman</a> to weigh in on Scott’s approach to donating large sums of money and her emphasis on other forms of generosity.</em></p>
<h2>Is Scott’s philanthropic philosophy unique?</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html">her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos</a>, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment that extremely affluent people make to <a href="https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=393">give away at least half their wealth</a>. </p>
<p>The pledge’s signatories may <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">write a letter</a> summing up why they are giving so much to charity and what their priorities are, which gets posted to the internet. Scott did that and amended the letter when she remarried. What makes her stand out from others who have signed the Giving Pledge is that she continues to write about her <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/">donations and what she’s learning about giving in general</a>. As a historian of philanthropy, I study the philosophies and motivations of donors, which I call their “<a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p085352">gospels of giving</a>.” </p>
<p>Her approach is clearly unique among her peers – other <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">billionaire donors</a> – because of how she relates to the organizations she supports and the diversity of those causes. She says her overarching goal is “to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds.”</p>
<p>Scott values the expertise of the groups she supports and their leadership. She says she doesn’t <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/no-dollar-signs-this-time-ec7ab2a87261">adhere to the conventional concept</a> of philanthropy, and she questions the way many of us think about generosity. To her it is not just a numbers game. It’s more about the spirit of giving, the sacrifice in the gift. </p>
<p>One major difference is that very wealthy donors tend to drill down in a single focused area, such as higher education, or a few causes – perhaps the arts or medical research. There are advisers who often <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28860">recommend this approach</a> to have the most impact. </p>
<p>But the nonprofits she has funded cover pretty much everything charitable donors support, from education to health, from social justice to the arts. Her latest donations even include <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/as-mackenzie-scott-donates-3-9b-one-grantee-expresses-ambivalence-102921">global organizations like CARE</a> and <a href="https://www.hias.org/news/press-releases/mackenzie-scott-and-dan-jewett-donate-10m-hias-ukraine-response">HIAS</a> that are serving the needs of Ukrainians whose lives have been turned upside down.</p>
<h2>Which other gifts stand out?</h2>
<p>Some of the largest gifts among the most recently announced are for <a href="https://www.bgca.org/news-stories/2022/March/boys-and-girls-clubs-of-america-announces-281-million-dollar-gift-from-mackenzie-scott">Girls & Boys Clubs of America</a>, <a href="https://www.communitiesinschools.org/articles/article/communities-schools-announces-transformative-investment-help-students-overcome-obstacles-learning/">Communities in Schools</a>, <a href="https://www.habitat.org/newsroom/2022/habitat-humanity-international-and-84-us-habitat-affiliates-receive-transformational">Habitat for Humanity</a>
and <a href="https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/599410-mackenzie-scott-donates-275m-to-planned-parenthood">Planned Parenthood Federation of America</a>. </p>
<p>I think it’s important that she didn’t give to only their affiliates in major cities. Foundations have been <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-gets-less-foundation-money/2015/06/29/">underinvesting in rural America</a> for years. Scott’s supporting dozens of local and regional affiliates in suburban and rural counties.</p>
<p>As I have explained before, her support for <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-scotts-hbcu-giving-starkly-contrasts-with-the-approach-of-early-white-funders-of-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-159039">historically Black colleges and universities</a> is important. Two recent gifts that she made, to <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/billionaire-mackenzie-scott-gifts-20m-to-meharry-medical-college/">Meharry Medical College</a> and <a href="https://www.cdrewu.edu/newsroom/charles-r-drew-university-medicine-and-science-receives-20-million-donation-philanthropist">Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science</a>, $20 million apiece, were very significant in light of how elite white donors undercut Black higher ed institutions in the early 20th century.</p>
<h2>Does it matter when she publicly discloses information?</h2>
<p>Scott posted an update in December 2021 <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/no-dollar-signs-this-time-ec7ab2a87261">without any details about her latest donations</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, she praised other forms of giving by people without billions to their name. One thing she has drawn attention to is how there’s a lot of informal giving, and that it’s not valued. This puts Scott where the average person is, especially in <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-hispanic-and-asian-american-donors-give-more-to-social-and-racial-justice-causes-as-well-as-strangers-in-need-new-survey-166720">communities of color</a>, where people look after neighbors and family members regularly in their giving.</p>
<p>Since these are charitable activities you can’t deduct from your taxes, you might not think of these helping behaviors and many forms of civic engagement as philanthropy.</p>
<p><a href="http://webarchive.urban.org/publications/311281.html">Unlike nearly all</a> donors <a href="https://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/the-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-campus/">operating on a big scale</a>, she has no offices and, so far, <a href="https://bloomerang.co/blog/5-tips-to-help-your-nonprofit-receive-mackenzie-scott-funds/">no website</a>. She’s been criticized for <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2021/mackenzie-scott-says-no-dollar-signs-this-time-as-she-finds-new-value-in-philanthropys-meaning/">a lack of</a> <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/mackenzie-scott-is-criticized-for-not-providing-details-in-latest-round-of-gifts">transparency, especially after she didn’t divulge</a> details in December. This sentiment has to do with the widespread belief that the public has a right to know when private interests spread their resources around <a href="https://ktar.com/story/4799980/mackenzie-scott-wont-say-how-much-shes-giving-this-time/">for public benefit</a>. </p>
<p>Her blog posts draw attention to trends people might miss regarding the groups she supports. She states the percentage of these organizations that are led by women, people of color or <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9">people she says have</a> “lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address.”</p>
<p>When somebody shows you how they’re thinking about their giving and what they support, that could have an impact on others. It may change whether they <a href="https://theconversation.com/alumni-gratitude-and-support-for-causes-are-behind-donations-of-50-million-or-more-to-colleges-and-universities-156086">donate only to their alma mater</a>, for example. Colleges and museums are used to getting these big gifts, but many of the organizations Scott is giving tens of millions of dollars to say these are the largest donations they’ve ever received. She’s shattering the notion of who is a worthy recipient – the unspoken idea that only the elite institutions and the most well-known are worthy of big gifts.</p>
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<h2>How does Scott talk about giving that isn’t purely monetary?</h2>
<p>For her it’s about generosity, not just dollars. She’s definitely thinking <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-saved-big-on-taxes-by-giving-away-a-ton-of-his-tesla-stock-172036">beyond the tax breaks she’ll get</a> for charitable gifts.</p>
<p>Her December 2021 post alludes to volunteering and other activities she calls the “work of practical beneficence” practiced by millions of people, estimating that it’s worth about $1 trillion. <a href="https://nccs.urban.org/publication/nonprofit-sector-brief-2019">Researchers have reached similar conclusions</a>. </p>
<p>She also highlighted the estimated <a href="https://globalindices.iupui.edu/tracker/index.html">$68 billion in annual global remittances</a> in that post. When people come to this country, begin working and send money to their homelands, that is a form of philanthropy. They may not use the word, but it’s the same idea, because it’s giving back to your family and your country of origin, and it responds to the same motivation as a donation to an established charity.</p>
<p>I agree that there’s much more to American philanthropy than the roughly <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-gave-a-record-471-billion-to-charity-in-2020-amid-concerns-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-job-losses-and-racial-justice-161489">half a trillion dollars</a> donated annually. There are other kinds of giving that fly below the radar screen that are important for survival, community-building, meeting basic needs and even for democracy.</p>
<p>She also addresses the role and value of <a href="https://youtu.be/KS2n7VUBOa0">using your voice</a> as an important part of social change. The history of the abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights movements and various movements today bear this out. That is something I focus on <a href="https://theconversation.com/400-years-of-black-giving-from-the-days-of-slavery-to-the-2019-morehouse-graduation-121402">in my research</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KS2n7VUBOa0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Historian Tyrone McKinley Freeman joined Bridgid Coulter Cheadle and Kimberly Jeffries Leonard to discuss how Black leaders are following in the footsteps of history’s trailblazers by devoting their time, talent and voice to many causes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do you hope the public takes away from Scott’s approach to giving?</h2>
<p>Scott has emerged as the most notable practitioner of what’s called <a href="https://www.genevaglobal.com/blog/your-reading-list-trust-based-philanthropy">trust-based philanthropy</a>. That refers to the notion that there should be <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-unrestricted-funding-two-philanthropy-experts-explain-164589">fewer strings attached to donations</a> and that reporting requirements and other expectations that often come with grants from foundations can be excessive.</p>
<p>In December 2020, Scott <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">mentioned that she has a team of advisers</a> to help her with screening, although she hasn’t shared what that process looks like. But after that, she is not asking anything else of the organizations she funds. Instead, she has chosen to step back and let them exercise responsibility, giving them space and flexibility. </p>
<p>I hope the public hears her answers to what I like to ask: Who counts as a philanthropist and what counts as philanthropy? I agree with Scott that it’s about more than money and that philanthropy is not only the domain of the wealthy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyrone McKinley Freeman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The approximately $12 billion she’s given away in the past two years has shattered conventions, explains a philanthropy historian.Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654492021-08-05T12:47:42Z2021-08-05T12:47:42Z3 takeaways from Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott teaming up to fund women’s and girls’ causes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414401/original/file-20210803-25-w2vxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2685%2C1881&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French Gates (left), shown here with Oprah Winfrey, makes gender equity a top priority in her giving.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/melinda-gates-and-oprah-winfrey-speak-onstage-at-oprahs-news-photo/1127679612">Bryan Bedder/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.pivotalventures.org/about-our-founder">Melinda French Gates</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">MacKenzie Scott</a>, two of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-amazoncom-inc-michael-bloomberg-jeff-bezos-philanthropy-43ff7817a0c8b7babfd2ab9bb67d3b5e">biggest U.S. donors</a>, have joined forces by funding the <a href="https://www.equalitycantwaitchallenge.org/">Equality Can’t Wait Challenge</a>.</p>
<p>The contest, intended to expand the power and influence of women in the United States by 2030, garnered more than 550 proposals. On July 29, 2021, French Gates and Scott <a href="https://solutions.leverforchange.org/explore-solutions/finalists-equality-cant-wait-challenge/">announced the winners</a>: <a href="https://www.equalitycantwaitchallenge.org/results">Four initiatives</a> will each receive US$10 million, and two more will get $4 million apiece. In addition to the women formerly married to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, <a href="https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/fdo-grantmaker-profile?key=SCHU081">Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies</a> is providing some of these funds.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photograph of MacKenzie Scott" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414403/original/file-20210803-27-1932de4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PhilanthropyRecordGiving/5b8e76ff9f254b0e8b9f64aae9e984f2/photo?Query=mackenzie%20AND%20scott&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=69&currentItemNo=1">Evan Agostini/Invision via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It marks the first official donor collaboration between French Gates and Scott. The money will help boost support for caregivers, get more women and girls to embark on technology careers, support entrepreneurship among Indigenous women, counter intimate-partner violence and train more women to become political leaders.</p>
<p>As experts in women’s giving and giving to women’s and girls’ causes at the <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/wpi">Women’s Philanthropy Institute</a>, we believe that this new partnership is significant for three reasons.</p>
<h2>1. There is a worldwide effort to increase gender equity</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/gates-foundation-commits-2-1-billion-to-advance-gender-equality-globally-821352462.html">Both donors</a> have previously made causes tied to <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/melinda-french-gates-and-mackenzie-scott-join-forces-to-support-womens-causes">women and girls a priority in their giving</a>. For example, they signed on as the initial contributors to a <a href="https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/co-impact-announces-new-1-billion-gender-fund/">Gender Fund</a>, announced on <a href="https://www.co-impact.org/gender-fund-announcement/">June 28, 2021</a>, that aims to raise $1 billion over the next decade to support organizations, mostly led by women, that operate in low-income countries. </p>
<p>This is, to be clear, an international effort that also includes <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/g7-countries-commit-15-billion-girls-education-aid/">foreign aid</a>.</p>
<p>A United Nations conference held in Paris in June 2021 drew pledges from countries, individuals and foundations totaling <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-06-30/40-billion-pledged-at-paris-conference-for-gender-equality">more than $40 billion</a> for causes such as ending forced marriage and bringing about greater parity in pay for women. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/02/bill-and-melinda-french-gates-are-officially-divorced.html">French Gates continues to co-chair</a> following her divorce, said it would <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-philanthropy-business-d7fe8b2086eab0310ebf28c77fc434cf">contribute $2.1 billion</a> from its coffers toward that global goal.</p>
<h2>2. US donors are underfunding these causes</h2>
<p>While the $48 million being donated through this contest is a tiny sliver of the $40 billion pledged for these causes, it could send a strong signal to other U.S. donors.</p>
<p>Just <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/wgi20.html">1.6% of philanthropic dollars</a> in America support women’s and girls’ organizations, according to research we have done with our colleagues. This percentage didn’t budge from 2012 to 2017 – the most recent year for which data is available – even though overall charitable giving has grown substantially, reaching <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-gave-a-record-471-billion-to-charity-in-2020-amid-concerns-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-job-losses-and-racial-justice-161489">$471.44 billion in 2020</a>. </p>
<p>We have also found that organizations serving women and girls <a href="https://www.thenonprofittimes.com/report/giving-to-women-girls-hit-7-1-billion/">tend to be smaller than other charities</a>, both in terms of the money they spend and the number of people they employ.</p>
<h2>3. They can boost enthusiasm for giving to causes serving women and girls</h2>
<p>French Gates and Scott have the potential to give far more than $48 million to causes like these in the future.</p>
<p>Scott has disclosed having donated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mackenzie-scott-net-worth-increasing-donations-amazon-stock-surge-2021-6">at least $8.5 billion</a> since 2020, an amount that represents an estimated <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2021/07/22/how-jeff-bezos-philanthropy-compares-to-ex-wife-mackenzie-scotts/?sh=4f0745f4e28b">14% of her present net worth</a>. But her wealth <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/why-the-richest-americans-can-t-give-money-away-fast-enough">continues to grow</a> at an even faster rate – leaving her with more funds to distribute. </p>
<p><a href="https://parade.com/1204965/jessicasager/bill-gates-net-worth/">The value of the assets French Gates has remains unclear</a>, even now that her divorce is final. As of July 2021, she and her ex-husband had put <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2021/07/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-mark-suzman-plans-evolve-governance">$65 billion into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</a>. French Gates also engages separately in philanthropy, venture capitalism and policy-related activities through her own firm, <a href="https://www.pivotalventures.org/our-work">Pivotal Ventures</a>.</p>
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<p>Together with our colleagues <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/social-norms.html">we have found</a> that women and men alike pay attention when women give to women’s and girls’ causes.</p>
<p>That is, French Gates and Scott can do more to increase philanthropy for women and girls than by giving away large portions of their own fortunes. By drawing attention to these donations, they can encourage others – both those with great wealth at their disposal and those of more modest means – to support these causes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tessa Skidmore is employed by the Women's Philanthropy Institute, which receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its research. She also serves as Vice President of the Indiana Evaluation Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Ackerman employed by the Women's Philanthropy Institute, which receives funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its research.</span></em></p>Winners of a new gender-equity contest do an array of work that includes helping caregivers and trying to reduce intimate-partner violence.Tessa Skidmore, Research Associate of Philanthropy, Women's Philanthropy Institute; Doctoral student of Philanthropy, IUPUIJacqueline Ackerman, Associate Director of Research, Women's Philanthropy Institute, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1590392021-08-02T12:37:51Z2021-08-02T12:37:51ZMacKenzie Scott’s HBCU giving starkly contrasts with the approach of early white funders of historically Black colleges and universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413776/original/file-20210729-19-b3yejw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C46%2C2180%2C1791&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Attorneys George E.C. Hayes, left, Thurgood Marshall, center, and James M. Nabrit, all HBCU grads, successfully sought to defeat school segregation in court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APWasThereSeparateButEqual/bccfc9d5693448b5a9aa1364bb8804f3/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=161&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Novelist and billionaire philanthropist <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">MacKenzie Scott</a> has so far given <a href="https://www.hbcudigest.com/p/mackenzie-scott-hbcu-giving-500-million">at least US$560 million</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/12/18/mackenzie-scott-college-donation-list-hbcus/">23 historically Black colleges and universities</a>. These donations are part of a bid she announced in 2019 to <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">quickly dedicate most of her fortune</a> to charity.</p>
<p>Scott’s gifts, including the <a href="https://www.tougaloo.edu/tougaloo-college-receives-6-million-gift-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-0">$6 million she donated to Tougaloo College</a> in Mississippi and the <a href="https://www.ncat.edu/news/2020/12/mackenzie-scott-donation.php">$45 million she gave North Carolina A&T University</a>, vary in size but nearly all of the colleges and universities describe this funding as “historic.” For many, it was the largest single donation they had ever received from an individual donor.</p>
<p>Scott, previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is not making a splash just because of the size of her donations. She has an unusually unrestrictive <a href="https://www.thebalancesmb.com/restricted-unrestricted-nonprofit-funds-2502167">get-out-of-the-way approach</a>. </p>
<p>“I gave each a contribution and encouraged them to spend it on whatever they believe best serves their efforts,” <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">Scott wrote</a> in a July 2020 blog post.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of MacKenzie Scott" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">MacKenzie Scott has given about $8.5 billion to charity since 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PhilanthropyRecordGiving/5b8e76ff9f254b0e8b9f64aae9e984f2/photo?Query=mackenzie%20AND%20scott&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=69&currentItemNo=1">Evan Agostini/Invision via AP</a></span>
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<p>She sees the standard requirements that universities and other organizations report to funders on their progress as burdensome distractions. Instead of negotiating detailed agreements before making a gift, she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html">works with a team of advisers to stealthily vet</a> a wide array of nonprofits, colleges and universities from afar before surprising them with her unprecedented multimillion-dollar gifts that come <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-unrestricted-funding-two-philanthropy-experts-explain-164589">without any strings attached</a>.</p>
<p>Scott is <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/185788/">also supporting students of color</a> through donations to the <a href="https://uncf.org/">United Negro College Fund</a> and the <a href="https://www.tmcf.org/">Thurgood Marshall College Fund</a>, which give HBCU students scholarships, and by supporting many other colleges and universities that <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-billions-mackenzie-scott-is-giving-to-colleges-attended-by-students-of-color-will-help-everyone-in-america-162837">enroll large numbers of minority students</a>.</p>
<p>Her approach sharply contrasts with how many wealthy white donors have interacted with Black-serving nonprofits, including HBCUs, in the past. As a <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/freeman-tyrone.html">historian of philanthropy</a>, I have studied the <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/43qme5pk9780252043451.html">paternalism of white funders</a>, including those who helped many of these schools open their doors.</p>
<h2>HBCU origins</h2>
<p><a href="https://hbcuconnect.com/content/11523/oldesthbcus">The first HBCUs</a> were founded in Northern states before the Civil War, including <a href="https://cheyney.edu/">Cheyney</a> and <a href="https://www.lincoln.edu/">Lincoln</a> universities in Pennsylvania and <a href="https://wilberforce.edu/">Wilberforce University</a> in Ohio. After the war, most HBCUs were established in Southern states. These institutions were lifelines for Black Americans seeking higher education during <a href="https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3134/">decades of Jim Crow segregation</a> that locked them out of other colleges and universities. (Disclosure: I earned my bachelor’s degree at Lincoln University.)</p>
<p>Although many white philanthropists made large gifts to these schools, their support was fraught with prejudice. Initially, white funders pushed for HBCUs to emphasize vocational training, then called “industrial education,” <a href="http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/i-m-going-to-college--the-expa/40-acres-and-an-education--the">such as blacksmithing</a>, printing and shoemaking, over more intellectual pursuits.</p>
<p>White philanthropists including <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/11301/">Andrew Carnegie</a> and <a href="https://www.spelman.edu/about-us/history-in-brief">John D. Rockefeller</a> had poured millions from their fortunes into the proliferation of <a href="https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6511">Black industrial schools</a> by the early 20th century. The HBCUs <a href="https://www.hamptonu.edu/">Hampton University</a> in Virginia and <a href="https://www.tuskegee.edu/">Tuskegee University</a> in Alabama, which received donations from Scott, were leading models of industrial education for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wealthy people walk alongside a train in the early 1900s" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tycoon and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, shown leaving a train with his wife, philanthropist Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller, in the early 1910s, donated to HBCUs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tycoon-and-philanthropist-john-d-rockefeller-is-seen-news-photo/466684655">PhotoQuest/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The vocational curriculum at these schools was promoted as preparing Black students to be skilled laborers and academic teachers. During this era, however, most graduates worked as <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807842218/the-education-of-blacks-in-the-south-1860-1935/">unskilled laborers or vocational teachers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807842218/the-education-of-blacks-in-the-south-1860-1935/">White Southerners overwhelmingly approved</a> of this arrangement, which left many HBCU grads on the bottom rung of society rather than making them educated citizens. Emphasizing industrial education at HBCUs preserved the superior economic status of white Americans and the racist <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm">system of segregation</a>. But African Americans’ educational aspirations required much more.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/w-e-b-du-bois-embraced-science-to-fight-racism-as-editor-of-naacps-magazine-the-crisis-150825">W.E.B. Du Bois</a>, a prominent Black intellectual, was a leading critic of the funding HBCUs got from wealthy whites. He <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781583670422/the-education-of-black-people/">said</a>: “Education is not and should not be a private philanthropy; it is a public service and whenever it merely becomes a gift of the rich it is in danger.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman sits at a desk surrounded by papers in an old photograph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary McLeod Bethune.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/educator-mary-mcleod-bethune-sits-at-a-desk-possibly-in-the-news-photo/117627766?adppopup=true">The Abbott Sengstacke Family Papers/Robert Abbott Sengstacke via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In 1904, the HBCU leader <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune">Mary McLeod Bethune</a>, founder of Florida’s Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls – now <a href="https://www.cookman.edu/">Bethune Cookman University</a> – felt this pressure. She placed “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/mary-mcleod-bethune-black-womens-political-activism/oclc/51060235">industrial</a>” in her school’s name to attract white funding. But she sought to give Black students a liberal arts education that she believed would support their full citizenship.</p>
<p>Decades later, the sociologist <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/charles-s-johnson-leadership-beyond-the-veil-in-the-age-of-jim-crow/oclc/952756040&referer=brief_results">Charles S. Johnson</a> served as Fisk University’s first Black president, starting in 1946. He sought to turn <a href="https://www.fisk.edu/">that Tennessee HBCU</a>, founded in 1866, into a powerhouse of Black liberal arts education in partnership with white philanthropists and foundations rather than covertly.</p>
<p>HBCU leaders have, in short, faced a predicament for generations: When rich white donors offer big donations, can the money truly be used to support Black educational interests and goals?</p>
<h2>Prejudiced backlash</h2>
<p>When HBCUs secured funding early on, that money was often jeopardized because of bigotry.</p>
<p>In 1887, for example, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-First-American-School-of-Sociology-WEB-Du-Bois-and-the-Atlanta-Sociological/II/p/book/9781138476776">Georgia state Legislature withdrew $8,000</a>, worth approximately $220,000 today, in critical annual funding from Atlanta University. The HBCU, founded in 1865, had flouted Southern norms by allowing whites and Blacks to share campus facilities, which white politicians did not appreciate.</p>
<p>Later, the school embraced a liberal arts curriculum, bucking the more vocational emphasis white segregationists preferred.</p>
<p>In response, many white philanthropists withdrew their donations.</p>
<p>Despite that challenge, Atlanta University persevered, eventually merging with Clark College. And so it is historically significant that Scott gave <a href="https://www.cau.edu/">Clark Atlanta University</a> $15 million in 2020 to use as it sees fit. The school is <a href="https://www.cau.edu/news/2020/12/CAU-Announces-15-Million-Gift-from-Philanthropist-MacKenzie-Scott.html">using the money for academic innovation</a>, infrastructure and scholarships, and to build up its endowment.</p>
<h2>Undercutting Black medical schools</h2>
<p>In 1908 there were seven Black medical schools in the U.S. By 1921, following a sustained attack on those institutions, only two remained: <a href="https://home.mmc.edu/">Meharry Medical College</a> in Nashville and <a href="https://home.howard.edu/">Howard University</a> in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>The loss of those schools began in 1910, when <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178858/">Andrew Carnegie’s foundation funded a report</a> by educator Abraham Flexner. Part of a larger reform movement to standardize medical training, Flexner’s study recommended the closure of five Black medical schools. It led white funders to sever their support.</p>
<p>At the time, there were extensive problems with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569717/">medical education across the board</a> in the U.S. There were no standards for curriculum or instruction. But Black medical schools’ particular problems – poor funding, insufficient faculty and inadequate facilities – were exacerbated by Jim Crow segregation and condescension from the establishment.</p>
<p><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466843721">Flexner’s site visits</a> were incredibly short. He castigated Black doctors as a group without interviewing them. He recommended support for Meharry and Howard to ensure that at least some Black doctors would be able to care for Black patients in segregated hospitals and prevent the spread of disease to the white population.</p>
<p>Carnegie’s and Rockefeller’s foundations were initially reluctant to support the two surviving medical schools in implementing Flexner’s suggested reforms. Their subsequent funding ebbed and flowed irregularly. Scholars have estimated that the Black medical schools closed after Flexner’s damning report would have produced <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32816033/">35,000 Black doctors</a> over the past century.</p>
<p>For decades HBCUs such as <a href="https://www.bizneworleans.com/ex-wife-of-amazon-founder-donates-20m-to-xavier/">Xavier University</a> in Louisiana, which received $20 million from Scott in 2020, have been <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3934%2Fpublichealth.2017.6.579">top producers of Black graduates who become doctors</a>.</p>
<h2>A continuing problem</h2>
<p>A long-term shortage of Black doctors remains a critical <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-should-we-respond-racist-legacies-health-professions-education-originating-flexner-report/2021-03">public health issue</a> today, reflecting the sustained underfunding of HBCUs.</p>
<p>For example, Maryland’s HBCUs won a settlement against the state in 2021 totaling <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/02/992922662/what-a-577-million-settlement-will-mean-for-maryland-hbcus">$577 million</a> intended to remedy decades of underfunding compared with the state’s predominantly white colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Scott funded three of those public institutions: <a href="https://bowiestate.edu/about/news/2020/bsu-receives-largest-gift-from-mackenzie-scott.php">Bowie State</a>, <a href="https://news.morgan.edu/40m-gift-from-mackenzie-scott/">Morgan State</a> and <a href="https://www.umes.edu/PR/News-Articles/2020/UMES-receives-historic-%2420-million-donation/">University of Maryland Eastern Shore</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>A review completed in 2021 of <a href="https://www.tnstate.edu/">Tennessee State University</a>, another HBCU, found the state underfunded it by an estimated <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/26/tennessee-state-fights-chronic-underfunding">$544 million</a> compared with the school’s white counterparts, dating back to 1950. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kamala Harris greets a college student at Howard University" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vice President Kamala Harris graduated from Howard University, an HBCU.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sen-kamala-harris-speaks-to-amos-jackson-iii-executive-news-photo/1085870596">Al Drago/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>HBCUs today</h2>
<p>Today there are <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">about 100 HBCUs</a>, half of which are public institutions. They enroll roughly 300,000 students and award nearly 50,000 degrees annually.</p>
<p>Seventy percent of HBCU students are <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell">eligible for Pell grants</a>, making the schools critical for first-generation and low-income students. Although they represent only 3% of all degree-granting institutions, HBCUs confer <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">13% of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Black Americans</a>.</p>
<p>Today, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111265/">disproportionate share of HBCU grads become doctors</a> – making these schools a vital on-ramp into the middle class for students of color.</p>
<p>And yet HBCUs are financially fragile. The<a href="https://afro.com/top-10-hbcu-endowments/"> 10 largest HBCU endowments total $2 billion</a>, just 1% of the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/10-universities-with-the-biggest-endowments">$200 billion</a> held collectively by the 10 predominantly white colleges and universities with the largest endowments.</p>
<p>Despite the financial challenges these schools have faced, <a href="https://hbcubuzz.com/2021/02/28-hbcu-alums-made-black-history/">HBCU graduates include some of America’s most prominent figures</a>, including Martin Luther King Jr., Vice President Kamala Harris, multimedia mogul <a href="https://www.tnstate.edu/alumni/distinguishedtigers.aspx#Oprah%20Winfrey%20bio">Oprah Winfrey</a>, Supreme Court Justice <a href="https://www.crimsoneducation.org/us/blog/campus-life-more/the-history-of-hbcus/">Thurgood Marshall, filmmaker Spike Lee and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison</a>.</p>
<p>There’s no way to know the full toll endured by HBCUs and the Black community as a whole from long-term underfunding and donor hostility. In my view, it will take decades of Scott-style giving for HBCUs to recover what has been lost in time, compound interest and impact over generations.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyrone McKinley Freeman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When white philanthropists made large gifts to these schools in the 19th century and early 20th century, many insisted upon a vocational focus for Black higher ed.Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Director of Undergraduate Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1628372021-06-24T12:09:26Z2021-06-24T12:09:26ZHow the billions MacKenzie Scott is giving to colleges attended by students of color will help everyone in America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407765/original/file-20210622-25-1afat81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C423%2C1785%2C1171&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scott is giving dozens of predominantly nonwhite schools their biggest donations ever, including Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/melissa-gomes-right-fixes-the-tassel-as-new-graduate-sarah-news-photo/1215219419">Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When billionaire <a href="https://www.highereddive.com/news/mackenzie-scott-announces-more-donations-to-colleges-higher-ed-groups/601843/">philanthropist MacKenzie Scott</a> announced her third round of charitable gifts in June 2021, she said she was giving US$2.7 billion to 286 organizations. This list includes 31 colleges and universities serving people of color and other underserved communities.</p>
<p>That’s on top of the $4.2 billion <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/12/16/mackenzie-scott-gives-away-42-billion-and-colleges-rejoice">Scott announced in December 2020</a> to support 384 organizations, including 30 colleges and universities. Her <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">initial plan, announced in July 2020</a>, included $1.7 billion for 116 organizations, including several Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pmb/eeo/doi-minority-serving-institutions-program">minority-serving institutions</a>.</p>
<p>For example, Scott is giving Xavier University of Louisiana, a school that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/a-prescription-for-more-black-doctors.html">sends more Black graduates to medical school</a> than any other university in the U.S., <a href="https://www.bizneworleans.com/ex-wife-of-amazon-founder-donates-20m-to-xavier/">$20 million</a>; <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/university/long-beach-city-college">Long Beach City College</a>, a California school where more than 85% of students are people of color, <a href="https://www.lbcc.edu/press-release/lbcc-receives-historic-30-million-gift-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott">$30 million</a>; and <a href="https://www.cbs7.com/2021/06/15/odessa-college-receives-7-million-donation-mackenzie-scott/">Odessa College</a>, a Texas school where <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/university/odessa-college">74% of students are nonwhite</a>, $7 million. All three colleges said Scott’s donations were the largest they had ever received.</p>
<p>As a counseling psychology professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=nr_dqLUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">who conducts research regarding the education of Black students</a>, I am encouraged to see Scott, a novelist who was formerly married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, depart from how billionaires tend to approach their higher education giving. <a href="https://thebestschools.org/features/most-generous-alumni-donors/">Most make donations to prestigious universities</a> that already have <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/how-do-university-endowments-work/">large endowments</a> – money raised from alumni and other donors that they invest in stocks, bonds and other assets. This wealth can cover the cost of scholarships, salaries, construction and any other expenses. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="MacKenzie Scott and her husband Dan Jewett" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">MacKenzie Scott’s new husband, Dan Jewett, has joined her in a pledge to give away most of their fortune.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393">Giving Pledge</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Most wealthy people donate to wealthy schools</h2>
<p>Mike Bloomberg, for example, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/19/18102994/michael-bloomberg-johns-hopkins-financial-aid-donation">donated $1.8 billion</a> to John Hopkins University, his alma mater, in 2018. Notably, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.85.2.0097">that prestigious school receives</a> more money from federal grants than all of the nation’s 100 HBCUs combined.</p>
<p>Similarly, I question how donations to Harvard University, such as the <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/3/7/zuckerberg-donates-30million/">$30 million</a> from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, can be considered charitable when it already has <a href="https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/09/harvard-endowment-41-9-billion-on-7-3-percent-investment-return">$41.9 billion in its endowment</a>. Harvard earned a 7.3% return on its endowment assets for its fiscal year that ended in June 2020 – about $3 billion.</p>
<p>Interestingly, I’ve calculated that the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Help/View/1">total combined annual operating cost of all private HBCUs</a> is also about $3 billion.</p>
<h2>Fewer students of color attend ‘national universities’</h2>
<p>U.S. News and World Report considers <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq">389 schools to be “national universities</a>” <a href="https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/">because of their stature</a> and academic offerings. These universities are more likely to receive charitable contributions than others because of their reputation and the large number of affluent people who graduate from them. But these colleges and universities represent <a href="https://www.urbanedjournal.org/education/how-many-colleges-are-in-the-us-numbers-of-colleges-and-educational-institutions/">fewer than 10% of all institutions of higher education</a>.</p>
<p>When I analyzed <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data">raw data files from the leading federal database for educational data</a>, I found that students of color are less likely to enroll at national universities than their white peers.</p>
<p>I also found that the schools enrolling the most students of color are more likely to be two-year colleges as opposed to a four-year institution; less likely to be prominent research universities; more likely to have significantly high percentages of low-income students; and more likely to have smaller-than-average endowments.</p>
<p>When announcing Scott’s historic donations, many colleges and universities have noted their success with graduating science, technology, engineering and math students.</p>
<p>Florida International University, for example, announced that Scott’s $40 million gift will be used for “<a href="https://news.fiu.edu/2021/mackenzie-scott-makes-a-40-million-gift-to-fiu-that-will-transform-the-student-experience">student success programs</a>.” That school noted its number 6 ranking in terms of awarding engineering degrees to African Americans and the high percentage of its Latino students who earn STEM degrees.</p>
<p><a href="https://affordableschools.net/25-largest-hbcu-bachelors-colleges-enrollment/">North Carolina A&T</a>, the nation’s largest HBCU, announced plans to spend Scott’s <a href="https://abc11.com/mackenzie-scott-worth-who-is-north-carolina-a--t-university-winston-salem-state/8818615/">$45 million donation</a> in “<a href="https://www.ncat.edu/news/2020/12/mackenzie-scott-donation.php">areas of critical national need, including professions in STEM</a>.” The selection of multiple HBCUs, Hispanic-serving and tribal colleges with a track record of graduating underrepresented STEM students seems intentional.</p>
<p>What’s more, recent data suggests that <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">prominent national universities are not graduating enough students</a> overall, apart from racial, ethnic and class considerations, to satisfy the needs of the future workforce.</p>
<p>In 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine predicted that the <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">nation will need 1 million</a> more STEM professionals than are on pace to earn higher education degrees in the 2020s.</p>
<p>The National Science Board, the governing board for the National Science Foundation, called this impending shortage of STEM professionals the “<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/news/news_summ.jsp">missing millions</a>.” It passed a resolution to address the “urgent need” for more underrepresented groups in the U.S. science and engineering workforce.</p>
<p>A STEM workforce that represents the diversity of the U.S. population can <a href="https://itif.org/publications/2019/09/12/why-federal-rd-policy-needs-prioritize-productivity-drive-growth-and-reduce">contribute to economic growth</a>. Washington Center for Equitable Growth <a href="https://live-equitablegrowth.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/10153405/0115-ach-gap-report.pdf">estimated</a> the nation could earn $5.3 trillion in increased tax revenue from a more skilled workforce if we closed the achievement gap in math and science over the next 60 years. Similarly, a <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526954.pdf">Harvard University report</a> estimated, by calculating national income projections over an 80-year period, the U.S. would add $75 trillion to the GDP if math education was equal.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">more than 700 minority-serving institutions</a> across the U.S. These <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">colleges and universities enroll nearly 30%</a> of all undergraduates in America. Learners of color, research indicates, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.82.4.0359">find such schools to be more accessible and welcoming</a> than primarily white schools.</p>
<p>What’s more, about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1521025117690159">half of the students attending minority-serving institutions</a> get Pell Grants, which help cover educational costs for low-income students. And they enroll many students who are the <a href="https://cmsi.gse.rutgers.edu/content/brief-history-msis">first in their families to go to college</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A masked woman and man speak under a spotlight in a booklined room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm speaks with Howard University student Christopher Flowers about the need for more diversity among STEM students and workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jennifer-granholm-u-s-energy-secretary-speaks-to-howard-news-photo/1232671043">Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A welcome trend</h2>
<p>Scott’s <a href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393">approach to giving</a>, with its <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-justice-giving-is-booming-4-trends-145526">emphasis on racial justice</a>, appears to be inspiring others to take a similar approach with their educational philanthropy.</p>
<p>Days after her June 2021 announcement, for example, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/google-announces-50-million-in-grants-for-hbcus/">Google confirmed its plans</a> to commit $50 million to build infrastructure and support scholarships at HBCUs. </p>
<p>I see many <a href="https://www.postsecondaryvalue.org/reports/">reasons beyond charity</a> for philanthropists, the government and corporations to consider donating to colleges and universities that mostly enroll students of color. Among them: It’s a key strategy for helping everyone in America.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivory A. Toldson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Her giving style is unusual for a billionaire donor.Ivory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1628292021-06-16T12:36:14Z2021-06-16T12:36:14Z5 ways MacKenzie Scott’s $8.5 billion commitment to social and economic justice is a model for other donors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406580/original/file-20210615-13-131ysle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C59%2C4809%2C2493&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graduates of Cal State Fullerton, one of many universities with nonwhite majorities that billionaire MacKenzie Scott is supporting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cal-state-fullerton-graduates-karla-lopez-left-christian-news-photo/1031646876">Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The author and <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/seeding-by-ceding-ea6de642bf">philanthropist MacKenzie Scott</a> announced on June 15, 2021, that she and <a href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393">her husband Dan Jewett</a> had given <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mackenzie-scott-donating-billions-8e06be7452b8c70f0d9802a6c10ca6a0">US$2.7 billion to 286 organizations</a>, including universities, arts organizations and other nonprofits. It was her third announcement of this kind since she first publicly discussed her giving intentions in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">May 2019</a>.</p>
<p>Scott has donated about $8.5 billion to a constellation of nonprofits she calls “high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked.” She’s emphasizing racial justice, women’s rights and LGBTQ equality.</p>
<p>The $5.8 billion Scott gave to charity in 2020 amounted to nearly 2% of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-gave-a-record-471-billion-to-charity-in-2020-amid-concerns-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-job-losses-and-racial-justice-161489">$324 billion donated by individuals</a> over the course of the year.</p>
<p>In early 2021, she emphasized arts organizations much more than in her prior funding rounds, noting that her goal was to lift up arts nonprofits that focus on diverse communities. She also supported a number of organizations like the Donors of Color Network and Native Americans in Philanthropy, which aim to grow civic engagement among communities of color, and charity-research leaders like the Urban Institute and the <a href="https://www.axios.com/mackenzie-scott-charitable-giving-e2e05fa8-daf2-4dfe-987e-3bab33a08a36.html">Bridgespan Group</a>, which has been advising her.</p>
<p>As in the <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">two previous blog</a> <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">posts she wrote</a> to break news of the donations, Scott again encouraged donors of all means to join her, whether those gifts are money or time. </p>
<p>Scott, who was previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has left it up to the causes she’s funding to reveal precise totals for each gift.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tu70lmIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of philanthropy</a>, I believe that Scott is modeling five best practices for <a href="https://resourcegeneration.org/what-we-do/social-justice-philanthropy-and-giving/">social change giving</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="ywfjW" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ywfjW/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>1. Don’t attach strings</h2>
<p>All of Scott’s gifts – many in the millions or tens of millions – were made without restrictions. That’s unusual, especially for her largest donations. For example, she gave $40 million to <a href="http://news.fullerton.edu/2021/06/philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-gives-40-million-gift-to-cal-state-fullerton/">California State Fullerton</a>, a public university, in 2021. In 2020, she gave $40 million to the <a href="https://www.lisc.org/our-stories/story/mackenzie-scott-transformative-gift-lisc">Local Initiatives Support Corporation</a>, which advocates for and builds affordable housing. </p>
<p>Rather than specify a purpose, as <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/power_and_pleasure_of_unrestricted_funding#">many large donors</a> do, Scott made it clear that she trusts the organizations’ leaders by providing absolute flexibility in terms of how to use her money to pursue their missions. This hands-off approach <a href="https://theconversation.com/nonprofits-that-scrimp-on-overhead-arent-necessarily-better-than-those-spending-more-111700">gives nonprofits</a> an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007300386">unusual amount of freedom</a> to innovate while equipping them to <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-survey-shows-that-social-service-nonprofits-are-trying-to-help-more-people-on-smaller-budgets-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-economic-downturn-unfold-138252">weather crises like the coronavirus pandemic</a> without stringent restrictions imposed by donors. </p>
<h2>2. Champion representation</h2>
<p>In Scott’s <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">initial round of giving</a>, she highlighted organizations whose leaders represented the communities they served, such as the Movement for Black Lives and Latino Justice, which are run by leaders of color, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center.</p>
<p>She says this approach brings “lived experience to solutions for imbalanced social systems.” Backing groups led by people directly affected by an issue is a common tenet of social justice giving at a time when organizations led by people of color <a href="https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/philanthropy/disparities-nonprofit-funding-for-leaders-of-color">receive less funding than white-led groups</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/seeding-by-ceding-ea6de642bf">Scott emphasized her philosophy</a> in this latest round of funding, writing: “people working to build power from within communities are the agents of change.” Organizations like Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and Solidaire, which work at the intersections of multiple identity groups, embody this principle.</p>
<p>In addition, some of the grassroots organizations she’s funding, like <a href="https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/song/">Southerners on New Ground</a>, an LGBTQ community-organizing nonprofit, and Southern Partners Fund, direct support to a region of the U.S. <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy-in-the-south/">that is often overlooked by donors and foundations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A participant holds a 'Listen to Black Women' sign at a protest in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, N.Y." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C46%2C2932%2C1494&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To support these causes, Scott sought out nonprofits led by people from the communities involved.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-holding-a-listen-to-black-women-sign-at-the-news-photo/1224873256">Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Act first, talk later</h2>
<p>Rather than making lengthy announcements about her plans and taking years to give away large sums of money, Scott chose to distribute this money rapidly and directly. </p>
<p>Unlike philanthropic peers like Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Scott’s initial three rounds of giving haven’t been channeled through a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/11/21133298/bill-gates-melinda-gates-money-foundation">large-scale foundation</a> or other entity, like the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-what-is-it-doing-so-far.html">Chan Zuckerberg Initiative</a>, bearing her own name or that of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffett-charities/warren-buffett-donates-2-9-billion-to-gates-foundation-family-charities-idUSKBN2492AA">another billionaire</a>.</p>
<p>And when she makes her public announcements, the gifts are already made.</p>
<h2>4. Don’t obsess about scale</h2>
<p>Many of the organizations receiving these gifts are relatively small in scale and lack widespread name recognition. The multiracial justice group <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943311784">Forward Together</a> and the Campaign for Female Education, a global aid group often called <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/542033897">CAMFED</a>, for example, until recently operated on annual budgets of $5.5 million or less, while the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472802851">Millennial Action Project</a> had an even smaller budget.</p>
<p>While she’s made some gifts that support relatively large public institutions of higher education, her focus has remained on schools that educate students from underserved communities. In addition to donations to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and tribal colleges, Scott has supported schools like the <a href="https://www.ucmerced.edu/fast-facts">University of California, Merced</a>, and the <a href="https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/the-university-of-texas-pan-american/student-life/diversity/">University of Texas Rio Grande Valley</a>, both of which have Latino majorities.</p>
<h2>5. Leverage more than money</h2>
<p>Philanthropy that’s intended to bring about social change inherently expresses the donor’s values, Scott acknowledged in her announcement. She continues to highlight the inequitable social structures that have put her in a position to make such significant gifts, saying “it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands.”</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>And <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/all-in.html">like the many women donors I’ve interviewed and studied</a>, she is using her position as one of the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/richest-women-in-the-world/49/">world’s wealthiest women</a> to amplify the voices of the leaders and groups she supports. Her goal is to encourage others to give, join or volunteer to support those same causes.</p>
<p>As Scott keeps noting, her philanthropy addresses complex issues exacerbated by systemic inequality that will require sustained and broad-based efforts to solve.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-5-8-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-152206">Dec. 20, 2020</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University, and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly her own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.. </span></em></p>By not attaching any strings to the money, championing representation and generally taking care to respect nonprofit leaders, she’s following five best practices.Elizabeth J. Dale, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614892021-06-15T13:21:13Z2021-06-15T13:21:13ZAmericans gave a record $471 billion to charity in 2020, amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, job losses and racial justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406057/original/file-20210614-77865-13lx831.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=176%2C69%2C4017%2C2244&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food banks, with help from volunteers, scrambled to meet higher demand.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/volunteers-distribute-food-from-the-second-harvest-food-news-photo/1227970939">Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A flood of <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=7779">donations to support COVID-19 relief</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-justice-giving-is-booming-4-trends-145526">racial justice efforts</a>, coupled with stock market gains, led Americans to give a record US$471 billion to charity in 2020. </p>
<p>The total donated to charity <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/news-events/news-item/giving-usa-2021:-in-a-year-of-unprecedented-events-and-challenges,-charitable-giving-reached-a-record-$471.44-billion-in-2020.html?id=361">rose 3.8% from the prior year in inflation-adjusted terms</a>, according to the latest annual Giving USA report from the <a href="https://givingusa.org/">Giving USA Foundation</a>, released in partnership with the <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/">Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI</a>. In contrast, total charitable giving only grew 2.8% in 2019 – a year of economic expansion and stock gains, we have found. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&user=KbjWCpcAAAAJ">two of the lead</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=plWgMBcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">researchers</a> who produced this report, we observed that giving bucked historical trends in three ways. The total increased despite a recession; foundations’ giving surged; and gifts to a variety of nonprofits providing social services, supporting people in need and protecting civil rights grew the most.</p>
<h2>1. A good year for giving during a recession</h2>
<p>Typically, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-charitable-giving-when-the-economy-falters-133903">giving declines or stays flat during recessions</a>.</p>
<p>One reason why giving rose in 2020, even though the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-economy-shrink-in-2020-b59f9be06dcf1da924f64afde2ce094c">economy contracted</a>, was that <a href="https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/602023/stock-market-today-123120-dow-sp-500-close-out-2020-on-top">stocks notched gains</a> by the end of the year. </p>
<p>Economists have found that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2010.10.016">donors give more to charity when the stock market fares well</a>. But <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/insights/recession-what-does-it-mean-investors/">stocks usually decline during recessions</a>.</p>
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<h2>2. Foundations and individuals stepped up</h2>
<p>Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began, <a href="https://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/five-foundations-commit-18-billion-nonprofit-organizations-wake-pandemic">many foundations pledged</a> to <a href="https://www.commfoundations.com/blog/2020/3/11/community-foundations-nationwide-launch-efforts-to-help-communities-affected-by-the-coronavirus">increase their grantmaking</a>. Based on our findings, it looks like they kept their word: Foundation giving rose 15.6% to a record $88.55 billion in 2020, after adjusting for the effects of inflation. </p>
<p>Strong stocks also bolstered <a href="https://www.cof.org/content/foundation-basics?ItemNumber=578&navItemNumber=1978">giving by foundations</a>, which support a wide array of charitable activities by making grants. They are required by law <a href="https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/payout/">to annually give away 5%</a> of the average value of their assets, often held in endowments. As their stocks and other holdings grow, that 5% gets larger too.</p>
<p>Stock gains may have also boosted giving by American households, the source of about two-thirds of all charitable dollars, which grew 1% to set another inflation-adjusted record of $324 billion.</p>
<p>In particular, America’s billionaires became an estimated <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/04/30/american-billionaires-have-gotten-12-trillion-richer-during-the-pandemic/">$1.2 trillion</a> richer in 2020.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-amazoncom-inc-michael-bloomberg-jeff-bezos-philanthropy-43ff7817a0c8b7babfd2ab9bb67d3b5e">giving by the wealthiest</a> Americans – <a href="https://www.wtoc.com/2021/05/27/goodwill-southeast-georgia-shocked-by-million-donation-mackenzie-scott/">especially</a> novelist and philanthropist <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-5-8-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-152206">MacKenzie Scott</a> – often dominated the headlines, giving by individuals wasn’t limited to large-scale gifts. One report found that the total raised from <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/buoyed-by-small-donors-giving-grew-10-6-in-2020-study-finds">gifts under $250</a> grew more than larger donations. Another study found that <a href="https://mrbenchmarks.com/editorial/front-page-news-key-findings">one-time online gifts</a> to organizations that provided COVID-19 relief grew by 41%. </p>
<p>At the same time, corporate philanthropy, which our colleagues in the past have found to be <a href="https://archives.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/2450/7728/estimating_corporate_charitable_giving_for_giving_usa.pdf?sequence=1">closely linked to economic performance and the profits companies earn</a>, actually fell 7.3%. While certain industries, such as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-economy-carves-deep-divide-between-haves-and-have-nots-11601910595">technology, grew in 2020</a>, many others, including travel, hospitality and transportation, experienced losses.</p>
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<h2>3. Uneven experiences for different kinds of nonprofits</h2>
<p>In addition to addressing the coronavirus pandemic and the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">unemployment spike it caused</a>, American individuals and foundations <a href="https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-philanthropy-race-and-ethnicity-health-coronavirus-pandemic-09417e5cec24f50643cd041bbe770e94">responded to calls regarding racial justice</a>.</p>
<p>Food banks, homeless shelters, youth programs and other organizations that meet basic needs, collectively known as <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.categories&categoryid=6">human services groups</a>, received an outpouring of support in 2020. Those donations grew 8.4%, in inflation-adjusted dollars, to $65 billion. This additional giving responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic troubles it brought about, as well as broad calls for racial justice.</p>
<p>Giving to <a href="https://www.guidestar.org/NonprofitDirectory.aspx?cat=7">public-society benefit organizations</a> grew the most, a 14.3% increase to $48 billion. This broad category includes the <a href="https://www.missionbox.com/article/38/united-way-grants-for-us-nonprofits-whos-eligible-how-to-apply">United Way</a> and its local branches, which pool donations raised in workplaces, from corporations and other sources. It also includes <a href="https://theconversation.com/donor-advised-funds-charities-with-benefits-74516">donor-advised funds</a>, accounts through which donors can direct gifts to charities, and <a href="https://cdfi.org/what-are-cdfis/">community development financial institutions</a>, private-sector financial operations that boost local borrowers. Civil rights and voting rights groups also fall into this category.</p>
<p>However, organizations that rely on in-person events and services – such as operas and museums, as well as charity walks, runs and other <a href="https://www.peertopeerforum.com/fundraising-guides/research/">peer-to-peer fundraising events</a> that raise money to fight diseases – overall fared worse in 2020 compared to 2019. That could help explain the 8.6% decline in giving to the arts, culture and humanities sector as well as why giving to health-related organizations fell by 4.2% amid the pandemic.</p>
<p>In addition, some large gifts that funded COVID-19 research, such as the W.M. Keck Foundation’s <a href="http://www.wmkeck.org/images/stories/pdfs/pdfs/WMKF_2020_Grant_Summary.pdf">$6 million in donations</a> to the University of Southern California, count as giving to education, not giving to health.</p>
<p>What’s more, all nine categories that we track received gifts slated for COVID-19 relief and racial justice causes.</p>
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<p>We also feel it’s important to observe that more than half of all Americans responded to the upheaval of 2020 with an <a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-in-the-pandemic-more-than-half-of-americans-have-found-ways-to-help-those-hit-by-covid-19-hardship-146517">outpouring of generosity</a>, which they expressed in many ways besides donating money to charities.</p>
<p>When physical distancing became essential, Americans went out of their way to buy meals-to-go to <a href="https://www.food.ee/blog/ways-to-support-local-restaurants-during-covid-19/">support local restaurants</a>, <a href="https://fitadvisors.com/how-much-should-you-tip-during-the-pandemic-money-etiquette-questions-answered/">paid their hairdressers</a> when their salons were closed and volunteered either formally or by simply <a href="https://www.thelily.com/neighbors-want-to-help-during-the-pandemic-these-women-prove-that/">helping their neighbors out</a>. In addition, many <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-rise-of-digital-handouts-on-venmo-and-cash-app-says-about-our-fraying-social-safety-net-146742">Americans gave directly to others</a> through <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-new-findings-shed-light-on-crowdfunding-for-charity-161491">crowdfunding platforms</a> and other apps, which are particularly popular for younger people and people of color. While our research focuses on giving to charities, these new habits may indicate a broader move toward generosity on the horizon.</p>
<p>Together with our colleagues, we will continue to investigate whether these new patterns will continue in 2021 and beyond.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Normally, giving declines when the economy contracts. But charitable donations grew anyway, two researchers explain.Anna Pruitt, Researcher and Managing Editor, Giving USA, IUPUIJon Bergdoll, Applied Statistician of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560862021-03-08T13:47:58Z2021-03-08T13:47:58ZAlumni gratitude and support for causes are behind donations of $50 million or more to colleges and universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387586/original/file-20210303-20-193qv0c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=171%2C82%2C4393%2C2689&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels, left, speaks with Michael Bloomberg, who has given the school more than $3.3 billion.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/johns-hopkins-university-president-ronald-j-daniels-and-news-photo/608582256"> Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>The top motive people cite for their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13139">donations of US$50 million or more to colleges or universities</a> was a desire to repay a university for what they or a loved one had gotten out of attending, according to a study we published last year. The second two most common reasons were an effort to simply do what they believe is the right thing and a wish to support a particular cause or political agenda.</p>
<p>We found this out when we researched the motives of 30 of these higher education megadonors, through random sampling, from 2010 to 2018 and reviewing about 1,700 publicly available documents and news items that discussed their gifts, including some that quoted the donors themselves. Many donors mentioned more than one motive when they explained why they gave so much money to a school.</p>
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<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/65-percent-of-colleges-raised-less-in-2020-than-2019-survey-finds">Two-thirds of U.S. universities</a> saw their donations decline in 2020 due to a drop in high-dollar gifts, according to a recent survey. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/02/09/giving-colleges-flattens-without-bloomberg-gift-2020-ending-decade-growth">Higher ed giving totaled just under $50 billion</a> for the year, as it also did in 2019.</p>
<p>Even some donors who kept giving to universities as the COVID-19 pandemic got underway changed their focus. Data collected by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education suggests that during the 2019-2020 school year, major donors increased their emphasis on giving immediate relief to students, rather than, say, funding the construction of <a href="https://www.case.org/resources/voluntary-support-education-survey">new buildings or adding to a school’s endowment</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, smaller gifts do add up and are important to expanding a school’s pool of donors. And many institutions are working hard to increase them. But the <a href="https://www.hanoverresearch.com/insights-blog/alumni-giving-university-fundraising-5-trends/">percentage of alumni giving to their alma maters is falling</a>, making the largest gifts even more crucial for higher ed fundraising. </p>
<p>A rule of thumb for colleges and universities is that about <a href="https://eab.com/insights/expert-insight/advancement/principal-gifts-success-starts-with-staffing/">5% of donors account for 95% of all giving</a>. Understanding what motivates big donors to support colleges and universities could help those schools become more persuasive when they encourage wealthy people to give.</p>
<p>In some cases, big donors are supporting higher education to advance a broader philanthropic strategy. In 2018, the billionaire <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/11/19/largest-gift-ever-higher-education-will-make-johns-hopkins-need-blind">Michael Bloomberg gave $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins</a>, his alma mater, to help low-income students.</p>
<p>A more recent example is <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-5-8-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-152206">MacKenzie Scott</a>, who divorced Jeff Bezos in 2019 and has become one of the most significant donors in America.</p>
<p>Scott, who <a href="https://paw.princeton.edu/article/jan-5-mackenzie-scott-92-major-donations">earned her college degree from Princeton</a>, has disclosed donations to 42 colleges and universities in 2020 totaling more than $800 million. This list includes many <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/mackenzie-scott-hbcu-donations/2020/12/17/0ce9ef5a-406f-11eb-8db8-395dedaaa036_story.html">historically Black colleges and universities</a> and other schools serving Latino and Native American students, such as Spelman College in Atlanta, Voorhees College in rural South Carolina and Palo Alto College in San Antonio.</p>
<p>But Scott’s giving occurred after we’d completed our study, which we published in the March/April 2020 issue of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13139">Public Administration Review</a>.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>In recent years, <a href="https://www.tiaainstitute.org/about/news/three-key-questions-higher-education-philanthropy-2020-and-beyond">big donations slated to help students afford a college education</a> accounted for only 13% of all gifts to higher education overall. It’s <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2020/5/4/forcing-radical-change-how-covid-19-could-reshape-higher-ed-philanthropy">unclear whether that’s going to change in the long term</a>, but, at least during the COVID-19 pandemic, this approach seems to be becoming more common.</p>
<p>In early 2021, retired UPS executive <a href="https://abc7ny.com/calvin-tyler-morgan-state-university-donation-college-dropout-donates-20-million-to-school-ups-hbcu/10372457/">Calvin Tyler and his wife Tina Tyler</a> gave <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/us/morgan-state-donation-biggest-trnd/index.html">$20 million to Morgan State University</a>, the historically Black university he attended in Baltimore, for scholarships. <a href="https://www.sportscasting.com/who-is-jerry-richardson-and-why-did-the-carolina-panthers-remove-his-statue/">Jerry Richardson</a>, who made a fortune with fast food franchises and was the founding owner of the Carolina Panthers football team, <a href="http://www.greenvillebusinessmag.com/2021/02/24/348368/richardson-gives-record-150-million-to-wofford-college-endowment?utm_source=Iterable&ut%E2%80%A6">gave $150 million to Wofford College</a>, the South Carolina liberal arts school he attended in the 1950s, for scholarships and other student support.</p>
<p>Only time will tell whether the trend toward more multimillion-dollar gifts that directly help students will continue or whether the traditional focus on gifts for endowments and buildings will return once the COVID-19 pandemic ends. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In some cases, big donors are supporting higher education to support a philanthropic strategy that includes racial and economic justice.Michael Worth, Professor of Nonprofit Management, George Washington UniversitySanjay K. Pandey, Professor and Shapiro Chair of Public Policy and Public Administration, Trachtenberg School, George Washington UniversitySheela Pandey, Assistant Professor of Management, School of Business Administration, Harrisburg campus, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1415182021-02-25T13:25:35Z2021-02-25T13:25:35ZGiving while female: Women are more likely to donate to charities than men of equal means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386180/original/file-20210224-22-a8jjpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=93%2C167%2C2498%2C1389&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women who are collectively donating to an all-girls school in Peru discuss their charitable giving in a Vienna, Virginia dining room.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dinner-for-nearly-two-dozen-at-the-dining-for-women-potluck-news-photo/691054828">Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The American poet <a href="http://dd.pangyre.org/p/">Ambrose Bierce</a> wrote in 1906 that a philanthropist is “a rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.”</p>
<p>While this satirical description may have resonated at the time, it no longer rings true today – in terms of the physical description if not the <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-students-see-giving-money-away-as-a-good-thing-but-theyre-getting-leery-of-billionaire-donors-116627">metaphorical critique</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-25-billion-the-biggest-us-donors-gave-in-2020-says-about-high-dollar-charity-today-154466">Major donors</a>, people who give away massive sums of money, are becoming more diverse. <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">More are women</a> and <a href="https://www.pgdc.com/pgdc/giving-trends-younger-donors">50 years old or younger</a>.</p>
<p>As scholars of <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/skidmore-tessa.html">how women give</a> and <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/sellen-charles.html">global philanthropy</a>, we’ve learned that <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/how-why-give.html">women overall are more likely to give, and give more, than men</a>, and these differences can be seen in a variety of ways.</p>
<h2>Single or married, women give</h2>
<p><a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/give-more.html">Gender differences in giving</a> are especially notable among single women and single men. Holding factors like income and wealth constant, about 51% of single women indicated they would give to charity, compared with 41% of single men. Women are also more likely than men to give to charity as their income rises.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-5-8-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-152206">MacKenzie Scott</a> – who <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-25-billion-the-biggest-us-donors-gave-in-2020-says-about-high-dollar-charity-today-154466">donated US$5.7 billion in 2020</a>, more than any other American except for her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos – and other rich American women are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/style/mackenzie-scott-prisclila-chan-zuckerberg-melinda-gates-philanthropy.html">challenging traditional notions of who can be a philanthropist</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393">Scott is among</a> nearly a dozen single female billionaires who have <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">signed the Giving Pledge</a>, a commitment to give more than half of their fortune to charity during their lifetime. Others include <a href="https://www.globalgiving.org/redbackpackfund/">Spanx founder Sara Blakely</a> and <a href="https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/judy-faulkner-to-donate-99-of-her-wealth/400849/">Judith Faulkner, a software entrepreneur</a>. </p>
<p>Married women of means are also among today’s most prominent philanthropists.</p>
<p>It’s become more common and increasingly visible among the world’s richest couples for women to <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/women-give16.html">be equal partners in decisions about charitable giving</a> and to champion causes of their own, like gender equality and criminal justice reform. Prominent examples include <a href="https://time.com/5690596/melinda-gates-empowering-women/">Melinda Gates</a>, who is married to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/laura-arnold-billionaire-philanthropist-parole-system-jay-z-meek-mill-2019-8">Laura Arnold</a>, the wife of hedge fund investor John Arnold.</p>
<p>Some women who are married to billionaires appear to be taking the lead on the couple’s philanthropy. Examples include <a href="https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/cari-tuna">Cari Tuna</a>, a former Wall Street Journal reporter married to Dustin Moscowitz, co-founder of Facebook and Asana, and <a href="https://www.medalofphilanthropy.org/mellody-hobson-and-george-lucas/">Mellody Hobson</a>, the businesswoman who chairs the Starbucks board of directors and is married to “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4647%2C2988&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Businesswoman Mellody Hobson and her husband, filmmaker George Lucas" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4647%2C2988&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385611/original/file-20210222-13-2lgn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Businesswoman Mellody Hobson, married to filmmaker George Lucas, has taken a leading role in the couple’s philanthropy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/LAPremiereofBlackPanther/388588e78cbb4ddcb81cb10cda2b209c/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=68&currentItemNo=2">Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How women give</h2>
<p>Of course, no one needs to be wealthy to be charitable.</p>
<p>And women, whether they’re rich, poor or somewhere in between, are perhaps more likely than men to <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/women-give19.html">think about giving in broad terms</a>, participating in a variety of charitable activities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/women-men-pandemic-disasters-help.html">During crises</a> and otherwise women seem especially likely to give by volunteering their <a href="https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/gifts-time-talent-and-treasure">time and talents</a>, in addition to donating money to support causes they care about. Women are also likely to contribute in other ways, such as <a href="https://www.aspenleadershipgroup.com/broader-definition-of-philanthropy-by-women/">providing their own testimony</a> by engaging in advocacy and leveraging their social networks on behalf of these causes.</p>
<p>Research has shown that <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/covid.html">people who are younger</a> and <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/women-give19.html">from communities of color are also likely to view giving broadly</a> and engage in less traditional forms of philanthropy, a trend that appears to have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-coronavirus-pandemic-7b1d14f25ab717c2a29ceafd40364b6e">mutual aid societies</a>, which were originally established in Black communities in the 1700s, have reemerged to help individuals care for one another. </p>
<p>A study on <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/covid.html">charitable giving during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic</a> that one of us (Skidmore) led showed that <a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-in-the-pandemic-more-than-half-of-americans-have-found-ways-to-help-those-hit-by-covid-19-hardship-146517">younger Americans were significantly more likely to participate</a> in unconventional forms of giving, like making a special effort to order takeout to support local restaurants.</p>
<h2>Women are more likely to give together</h2>
<p>Women also show a greater preference for collective giving and other collaborative charitable efforts than men. <a href="https://johnsoncenter.org/resource/the-landscape-of-giving-circles-collective-giving-groups-in-the-u-s/">Most people who take part in giving circles are women</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://johnsoncenter.org/collectivegiving/">Giving circles</a>, in which donors pool and decide together how to allocate money to charitable causes, have grown significantly in recent decades. A <a href="https://johnsoncenter.org/resource/the-landscape-of-giving-circles-collective-giving-groups-in-the-u-s/">2016 study identified more than 1,000 independent giving circles</a> across the U.S. – approximately three times the number that existed in 2007. </p>
<p><a href="https://johnsoncenter.org/resource/giving-circles-around-the-world-webinar/">Giving circles have become a global phenomenon</a> as well, with more than 400 operating outside the U.S., including in Canada, Asia, the Pacific Islands and Europe.</p>
<p>In the U.S. and other countries, human services, education and women and girls are the <a href="https://johnsoncenter.org/resource/the-landscape-of-giving-circles-collective-giving-groups-in-the-u-s/">top three causes that giving circles support</a>.</p>
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<h2>Women are more likely to give online</h2>
<p>Interestingly, our colleagues at the Women’s Philanthropy Institute found in reviewing data from 2016 to 2019 that women give far more money online than men.</p>
<p>In particular, the researchers found that women gave about <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/women-give20.html">two-thirds of the money raised</a> through the annual <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-nonprofits-raised-2-5-billion-on-giving-tuesday-in-2020-151902">Giving Tuesday</a> charity campaign, which happens on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. </p>
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<h2>Women everywhere are generous</h2>
<p>There are many examples of affluent women giving generously elsewhere in the world too.</p>
<p>British author J.K. Rowling reportedly <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/forbes-billionaire-list-rowling_n_1347176">dropped off the Forbes list of billionaires because she gave so much money away</a> through the <a href="https://www.philanthropy-impact.org/inspiration/personal-stories/jk-rowling-obe">Volant Charitable Trust</a>. The creator of the Harry Potter franchise established it in 2000 largely to <a href="https://www.volanttrust.org/what-we-fund/">fight poverty and help women and children</a>.</p>
<p>In China, the landscaping entrepreneur <a href="https://projectpengyou.org/happy-international-womens-day-2018/">He Qiaonü</a> pledged $1.5 billion for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-12/beijing-philanthropist-he-qiaonv-commits-1-5-billion-to-conservation">biodiversity conservation</a> in 2017. That marked the biggest donation ever made for an environmental cause in any country at that point.</p>
<p>Liliane Bettencourt, who inherited the L’Oréal cosmetics and hair care fortune, established the <a href="https://www.fondationbs.org/en">Bettencourt Schueller Foundation</a>, France’s largest foundation. It primarily supports <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/advertorials/fondation-bettencourt-schueller-funding-science-transform-society">life sciences and the arts</a> through prestigious prizes.</p>
<p>Japan’s <a href="https://www.amazonswatchmagazine.com/others/impact-inspire/the-philanthropic-pledge-the-story-of-japans-first-self-made-woman-billionaire/">first self-made woman billionaire</a>, Yoshiko Shinohara, recently retired to concentrate on philanthropy by funding scholarships for aspiring nurses, social workers or day care staff.</p>
<p>One reason women are able to give more money away today is that <a href="https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us-news/en/articles/news-and-expertise/global-wealth-report-2018-women-hold-40-percent-of-global-wealth-201810.html">they have more of it</a>. The total amount of <a href="https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/managing-next-decade-women-wealth">wealth owned by women around the world could total $81 trillion in 2023</a>, by one estimate, up from $34 trillion in 2010.</p>
<p>So, contrary to Ambrose Bierce’s take from a century ago, people don’t need to be wealthy or male to be philanthropists.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tessa Skidmore is employed by the Women's Philanthropy Institute, which receives funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She also serves as Vice President of the Indiana Evaluation Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Sellen has received funding from Indiana University and from the Franco-American Fulbright Commission to conduct research on philanthropy. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.</span></em></p>Whether they are single or married, giving as a group or on their own, women express their generosity in distinct ways.Tessa Skidmore, Research Associate of Philanthropy, Women's Philanthropy Institute; Doctoral student of Philanthropy, IUPUICharles Sellen, Global Philanthropy Fellow, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1544662021-02-09T16:01:13Z2021-02-09T16:01:13ZWhat the $25 billion the biggest US donors gave in 2020 says about high-dollar charity today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383115/original/file-20210208-17-1uft0gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C66%2C3637%2C2166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott, seen here before they divorced in 2019, were the top two U.S. charitable donors the following year. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-and-his-wife-mackenzie-bezos-arrive-news-photo/950770310">Jorg Carstensen/dpa/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: According to <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/package/the-new-focus-of-2020s-top-donors?cid=theconversation">The Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>, the top 50 Americans who gave the most to charity in 2020 committed to giving a total of US$24.7 billion to hospitals, homeless shelters, universities, museums and more – a boost of roughly 54% from 2019 levels. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VYsdAEIAAAAJ&hl=en">David Campbell</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tu70lmIAAAAJ">Elizabeth Dale</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uqv9NgwAAAAJ">Jasmine McGinnis Johnson</a>, three scholars of philanthropy, assess what these gifts mean, the possible motivations behind them and what they hope to see in the future in terms of charitable giving in the United States.</em></p>
<h2>What trends stand out?</h2>
<p><strong>Campbell:</strong> Pandemic. Pandemic. Pandemic. The share of giving that went to <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.categories&categoryid=6">social service nonprofits</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-food-banks-help-americans-who-have-trouble-getting-enough-to-eat-148150">food banks</a> and homelessness assistance groups rose sharply. At the same time, performing arts organizations, largely shut down as a result of the pandemic and <a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/09/30/study-shows-steep-revenue-plunge-for-theatres-some-hope-for-2021/">starved of revenue from ticket sales</a>, received more support from big donors in 2020 than in 2019, with charitable gifts and pledges to them increasing to $65 million from $51 million.</p>
<p><strong>McGinnis Johnson:</strong> Likewise, Racial justice. Racial justice. Racial justice.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/05/michael-jordans-brand-donates-100-million-to-anti-racist-groups.html">basketball legend Michael Jordan</a> declared that he would personally give at least $50 million to racial equity and education causes over the next decade, with his footwear and clothing company kicking in another $50 million. Also, Netflix CEO <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/netflix-s-reed-hastings-patty-quillin-donate-120m-black-education-n1231267">Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillan</a> gave a total of $120 million divided into three equal gifts to <a href="https://uncf.org/news/patty-quillin-and-reed-hastings-give-120-million-to-support-historically-black-colleges-and-universities">Morehouse College, Spelman College and UNCF</a> – the group previously called United Negro College Fund that pays for students to attend <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/how-hbcus-are-using-more-than-250-million-in-donations/">historically black colleges and universities</a>. Neither Jordan nor <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/netflix-s-reed-hastings-patty-quillin-donate-120m-black-education-n1231267">Hastings and Quillan</a>, who said their increased awareness about the country’s racial injustices and the deaths of Black people in police custody inspired them to give, made the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/billion-dollar-giving-streak-shows-new-sense-of-urgency-among-50-top-donors/">Chronicle’s list of top donors in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>These and other unusually large <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-justice-giving-is-booming-4-trends-145526">gifts taking aim at racial injustice</a>, and other forms of social injustice (not counting HBCU donations), totaled $66 million in 2020. But I had anticipated that there would be even more of this giving by the biggest donors.</p>
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<p><strong>Dale:</strong> In particular, <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-5-8-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-152206">MacKenzie Scott</a> – Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife – made <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/04/mackenzie-scott-surprises-hbcus-tribal-colleges-and-community-colleges-multimillion">many gifts to HBCUs</a>. These donations included $50 million for Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Morgan State University. In addition to racial justice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-takeaways-from-mackenzie-scotts-1-7-billion-in-support-for-social-justice-causes-143659">her philanthropy</a> has raised the profile of causes like civic engagement, community development and the need to address the <a href="https://ripmedicaldebt.org/press-release/gift-from-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott/">medical debt crisis</a> in the U.S. Scott was the second-largest donor for the year, after Bezos. Combined, their commitments totaled nearly $16 billion. Neither made the top 50 in 2019.</p>
<p>Until now, the ultra-rich haven’t typically supported causes like these. Instead, extremely wealthy donors have historically been more inclined to fund <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-1-gives-more-money-to-arts-culture-and-sports-than-to-fighting-climate-change-survey-of-billionaires-finds-2020-01-23">higher education and health care</a>, largely with big donations to elite universities, hospitals and arts institutions like museums and operas.</p>
<p>The other aspect that strikes me is the “who” part of the list. There are many new faces: Eight of the 20 top donors didn’t make an appearance on the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-philanthropy-50/?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in#id=table_2019">Philanthropy 50 list for their 2019 giving</a>. </p>
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<h2>What concerns do you have?</h2>
<p><strong>McGinnis Johnson:</strong> A total of about $14 billion of this giving went to foundations led by the givers themselves and <a href="https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/donor-advised-funds">donor-advised funds</a>, which work somewhat like foundations in that donors set money aside for charity before they actually give those funds to nonprofits. When wealthy people set aside money this way, they receive tax benefits before giving those funds. In a troubling development, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/foundations-are-sending-more-dollars-to-donor-advised-funds-chronicle-analysis-finds">some foundations</a> have begun to put some of their disbursed money, which was already designated for charity, into donor-advised funds rather than addressing today’s many urgent needs, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/18-million-us-children-are-at-risk-of-hunger-how-is-the-problem-being-addressed-and-what-more-can-be-done-151821">alleviating hunger</a> and <a href="https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/eviction-moratorium-gave-renters-relief-but-property-owners-face-billions-in-unpaid-rent">staving off evictions</a> amid a major economic crisis.</p>
<p><strong>Dale:</strong> This list reminds me of the limits of philanthropy, especially with a problem as widespread as the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if you add all of the social service gifts together, including donations to food banks, efforts to help the homeless and gifts to pay off medical debt, it adds up to only about $700 million. Compared to the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/biden-lays-out-1-9-trillion-covid-19-relief-package-n1254334">trillions of dollars in relief</a> the government is providing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/15/854774681/congress-has-approved-3-trillion-for-coronavirus-relief-so-far-heres-a-breakdown">individuals and small businesses</a> for economic problems that <a href="https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/dec/covid-19-relief-bill-addresses-key-ppp-issues.html">began in 2020</a>, you can see that philanthropy from the very wealthiest Americans doesn’t come close to meeting all of the nation’s needs.</p>
<p>One possible way Congress could encourage more donations is by increasing the share of assets that foundations must give away every year. A <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/wealthy-donors-press-congress-to-require-higher-giving-in-crisis">coalition of wealthy donors</a> including Walt Disney Co. heiress <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-are-we-waiting-for-multimillionaires-want-the-new-stimulus-bill-to-force-other-rich-people-to-give-more-money-to-charity-2020-07-22">Abigail Disney</a> and at least two members of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pritzker-family">Pritzker family</a> – heirs to the Hyatt fortune – supports this change.</p>
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<h2>What do you expect to see in 2021 and beyond?</h2>
<p><strong>McGinnis Johnson:</strong> I think that major gifts in support of racial and social justice causes may continue. I also expect to see the emergence of new donors spurred on by these crises who can give in new and different ways. And I hope that more wealthy donors begin to pay more attention to leadership, by supporting <a href="https://cep.org/a-new-wave-of-philanthropy-to-support-black-led-organizations/">organizations led by people of color</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Campbell:</strong> Donors like <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">MacKenzie Scott</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/@susansandlerfund/my-cancer-milestone-and-my-philanthropic-legacy-a338d03bfc94">Susan Sandler</a> – the heir to a fortune made in the home-mortgage business – and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/01/robin-hood-foundation-launches-fund-to-help-groups-run-by-people-of-color.html">some foundations</a> are going out of their way to invest in people, places and organizations that have long been ignored or marginalized.</p>
<p>Also, their public statements about their giving, along with Twitter CEO <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1-eGxq2mMoEGwgSpNVL5j2sa6ToojZUZ-Zun8h2oBAR4/htmlview">Jack Dorsey’s spreadsheet listing his donations</a>, have raised the bar for transparency in philanthropy.</p>
<p>I believe these new approaches can engage the public in an ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-students-see-giving-money-away-as-a-good-thing-but-theyre-getting-leery-of-billionaire-donors-116627">debate about the best way to use charitable dollars</a> to build a better world. The question is, will other wealthy donors follow their lead?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Campbell is vice chair of the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation in Binghamton, New York. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly my own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine McGinnis Johnson is a Visiting Fellow at Urban Institute, the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.</span></em></p>While support for social services and historically black colleges and universities rose sharply, these donors spent a tiny fraction of what the government distributed to people who needed help.David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkElizabeth J. Dale, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityJasmine McGinnis Johnson, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522062020-12-16T20:52:05Z2020-12-16T20:52:05Z5 ways MacKenzie Scott’s $5.8 billion commitment to social and economic justice is a model for other donors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375535/original/file-20201216-15-1csl6on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=69%2C37%2C4124%2C2885&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The philanthropist is giving away billions of dollars quickly to help people like these Floridians seeking donated food.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-aerial-view-from-a-drone-volunteers-load-boxes-of-news-photo/1230043517">Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The author and <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">philanthropist MacKenzie Scott</a> announced on Dec. 15 that she had given almost US$4.2 billion to hundreds of nonprofits. It was her second announcement of this kind since she first publicly discussed her giving intentions in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">May of 2019</a>.</p>
<p>In July 2020, Scott revealed that she’d already given away nearly <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">$1.7 billion</a> to 116 organizations, many of which focused on racial justice, women’s rights, LGBTQ equality, democracy and climate change. All told, her 2020 philanthropy totals more than $5.8 billion.
Scott directed her latest round of giving to <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">384 organizations</a> to support people disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She made dozens of gifts to food banks, United Way chapters, YMCAs and YWCAs – organizations that have seen increased demand for services and, in some cases, <a href="https://afpglobal.org/half-charities-expecting-drop-donations-2020-and-beyond">declines in philanthropic gifts</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">two blog</a> <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">posts she has written</a> to break the news, Scott has encouraged donors of all means to join her, whether those gifts are money or time.</p>
<p>Previously married to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the philanthropist announced in July that from now on she’ll be using her middle name as her new last name. She left it up to the causes she’s funding to reveal precise totals for each gift.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/morgan-state-university-receives-historic-gift-of-40m-from-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-301193421.html">Morgan State University</a> and <a href="https://www.cbs19news.com/story/43063099/mackenzie-scott-donates-30m-to-virginia-state-university">Virginia State University</a>, two of several historically Black colleges and universities receiving her donations, said these were the biggest gifts they’d ever gotten from an individual donor. A number of her gifts are also funding tribal colleges as well as community colleges.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tu70lmIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of philanthropy</a>, I believe that Scott is modeling five best practices for <a href="https://resourcegeneration.org/what-we-do/social-justice-philanthropy-and-giving/">social change giving</a>.</p>
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<h2>1. Don’t attach strings</h2>
<p>All of Scott’s gifts – many in the millions or tens of millions, like the $30 million she gave <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/us/hbcus-largest-donation-history-mackenzie-scott-trnd/index.html">Hampton University</a> and the $40 million to the <a href="https://www.lisc.org/our-stories/story/mackenzie-scott-transformative-gift-lisc">Local Initiatives Support Corporation</a>, which advocates for and builds affordable housing – were made without restrictions. Rather than specify a purpose, as <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/power_and_pleasure_of_unrestricted_funding#">many large donors</a> do, Scott made it clear that she trusts the organizations’ leaders by providing absolute flexibility in terms of how to use her money to pursue their missions. This hands-off approach <a href="https://theconversation.com/nonprofits-that-scrimp-on-overhead-arent-necessarily-better-than-those-spending-more-111700">gives nonprofits</a> an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007300386">unusual amount of freedom</a> to innovate while equipping them to <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-survey-shows-that-social-service-nonprofits-are-trying-to-help-more-people-on-smaller-budgets-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-economic-downturn-unfold-138252">weather crises like the coronavirus pandemic</a> without stringent restrictions imposed by donors. </p>
<h2>2. Champion representation</h2>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">According to Scott</a>, 91% of the racial equity organizations she funded in her initial round of massive giving, such as the Movement for Black Lives and LatinoJustice, are run by leaders of color. All of the LGBTQ equity organizations, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, that she’s backing are led by LGBTQ leaders. And 83% of the gender equity organizations, such as the Indian nonprofit <a href="https://www.educategirls.ngo/">Educate Girls</a>, are run by women. She says this approach brings “lived experience to solutions for imbalanced social systems.” Backing groups led by people directly affected by an issue is a common tenet of social justice giving at a time when organizations led by people of color <a href="https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/philanthropy/disparities-nonprofit-funding-for-leaders-of-color">receive less funding than white-led groups</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, some of her other gifts to grassroots organizations like <a href="https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/song/">Southerners on New Ground</a>, an LGBTQ community-organizing nonprofit, and Southern Partners Fund direct support to a region of the U.S. <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy-in-the-south/">that is often overlooked by donors and foundations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A participant holds a 'Listen to Black Women' sign at a protest in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, N.Y." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C46%2C2932%2C1494&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">To support these causes, Scott sought out nonprofits led by people from the communities involved.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-holding-a-listen-to-black-women-sign-at-the-news-photo/1224873256">Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Act first, talk later</h2>
<p>Rather than making lengthy announcements about her plans, Scott chose to distribute this money rapidly and directly. Unlike philanthropic peers like Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill and Melinda Gates, Scott’s first round of giving wasn’t channeled through a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/11/21133298/bill-gates-melinda-gates-money-foundation">large-scale foundation</a> or other entity, like the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-what-is-it-doing-so-far.html">Chan Zuckerberg Initiative</a>, bearing her own name or that of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffett-charities/warren-buffett-donates-2-9-billion-to-gates-foundation-family-charities-idUSKBN2492AA">another billionaire</a>. And when she made her public announcement, the gifts were already made.</p>
<h2>4. Don’t obsess about scale</h2>
<p>Many of the organizations receiving these gifts are relatively small in scale and lack widespread name recognition. The multiracial justice group <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943311784">Forward Together</a> and the Campaign for Female Education, a global aid group often called <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/542033897">CAMFED</a>, for example, until recently operated on annual budgets of $5.5 million or less, while the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472802851">Millennial Action Project</a> had an even smaller budget.</p>
<h2>5. Leverage more than money</h2>
<p>Philanthropy that’s intended to bring about social change inherently expresses the donor’s values, Scott acknowledged in her announcement. She also recognized her immense privilege, highlighting the need to address societal structures that sustain inequality. And <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/all-in.html">like the many women donors I’ve interviewed and studied</a>, she is using her position as the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-28/mackenzie-bezos-donates-1-7-billion-to-charity-within-months?sref=Hjm5biAW">world’s second-wealthiest woman</a> to amplify the voices of the leaders and groups she supported. Her goal is to encourage others to give, join or volunteer to support those same causes.</p>
<p>As Scott noted, the issues her philanthropy addresses are complex and will require sustained and broad-based efforts to solve.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-takeaways-from-mackenzie-scotts-1-7-billion-in-support-for-social-justice-causes-143659">July 30, 2020.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University, and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly her own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p>By not attaching any strings to the money, championing representation and generally taking care to respect nonprofit leaders, she’s following five best practices.Elizabeth J. Dale, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455262020-10-05T12:08:51Z2020-10-05T12:08:51ZRacial justice giving is booming: 4 trends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359629/original/file-20200923-14-1tvijmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=220%2C393%2C5028%2C3100&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's been an outpouring of giving in honor of Ahmaud Arbery and other victims of racial injustice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakTexasArberyMural/41be3980bd884bb79e9afb4e518e74fd/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=25&currentItemNo=8">AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The tragic, high-profile <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/08/906786745/many-black-people-say-police-killings-arent-going-to-be-fixed-overnight">killings of George Floyd</a> and other Black Americans in 2020 have sparked a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/16/902179773/summer-of-racial-reckoning-the-match-lit">reckoning on race</a>. As <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Una-Okonkwo-Osili-11047902">researchers</a> of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vbP7wlwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">philanthropy</a>, we’re keeping an eye on how this national awakening is affecting charitable giving across the nation.</p>
<p>We are seeing an <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Grant-Making-for-Racial/249004">outpouring of donations</a> from individuals, corporations and foundations that began to grow as soon as protests and other activities in support of racial and social justice started to spread across the country.</p>
<p>Much of this funding will likely support Black-led groups engaged in criminal justice reform and fighting for education equality. Wealthy donors in the first half of the year gave <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Companies-Lead-Philanthropic/249287">nearly US$6 billion in donations of $1 million or more</a>, but <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/beyond-protests-college-students-donate-money-to-make-change-happen.html">people of at various income and wealth levels</a> are also increasingly supporting racial equity causes and organizations.</p>
<h2>1. Crowdfunding related to victims of racial injustice</h2>
<p>The GoFundMe pages crowdfunding to seek justice for <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd">George Floyd</a>, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud">Ahmaud Arbery</a>, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/9v4q2-justice-for-breonna-taylor?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet">Breonna Taylor</a> and <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceforjacobblake">Jacob Blake</a> have all attracted at least $1 million so far.</p>
<p>Floyd’s GoFundMe memorial campaign has garnered <a href="https://www.insider.com/george-floyd-gofundme-most-donations-all-time-report-2020-6">more donations than any other campaign</a> in the online platform’s history, raising over $14 million with 500,000 individual donors from 140 countries worldwide. Many of these gifts to the impacted families of police violence were for $5 and few were for $50,000 or more.</p>
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<h2>2. Direct support for grassroots organizations</h2>
<p>After Memorial Day weekend, when Floyd died while in custody of the Minneapolis police, many Black-led grassroots organizations began to draw much higher levels of support as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/us/politics/black-lives-matter-racism-donations.html">protests garnered more participation and attention</a>.</p>
<p>For example, when protests erupted, the <a href="https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/">Minnesota Freedom Fund</a>, which advocates for a more equitable system of cash bail, turned its attention to bailing out arrested protesters. Once the fund reached a total of <a href="https://www.complex.com/life/what-is-the-minnesota-freedom-fund-explainer">$20 million</a> in donations, its organizers urged donors to support <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/george-floyd-protests-how-to-help-where-to-donate.html">Black-led organizations</a>.
Other grassroots organizations and networks also received support, such as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53284611">National Bail Fund Network</a>, which received $80 million in donations in late spring.</p>
<p>Even before the protests erupted, the Movement for Black Lives had received $5 million in the first five months of 2020 to support Black communities affected by the pandemic and to address broader issues of racial equity. This was <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/The-Movement-for-Black-Lives/248960/">nearly double the $2.7 million</a> the group, founded in 2014 following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, raised in all of 2019, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. </p>
<p>The Libra Foundation announced that a dozen grant-making organizations were joining together to give a total of <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/new-funder-collaborative-commits-36-million-to-black-movement-leaders">$36 million to Black-led organizations</a> and social movements like The Black Youth Project and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance.</p>
<p>These numbers provide only a partial estimate of total giving to these causes, and it will take at least until mid-2021 for the IRS to begin to release the official records and statistics needed for a fuller picture of giving to these groups. Based on data from Candid, a research group, institutional funders and large donors have contributed <a href="https://www-philanthropy-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/article/Companies-Lead-Philanthropic/249287">$5.9 billion for organizations primarily engaged in in racial equity work</a> to date. </p>
<h2>3. Shoring up HBCUs</h2>
<p>Historically Black colleges and universities, often called HBCUs, and <a href="https://uncf.org/">related groups</a> that <a href="https://www.tmcf.org/">fund scholarships</a> for the students who attend them, are getting more donations in 2020.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-hbcu-funding-trends-to-watch-in-2020/570949/">HBCUs in the past</a> received <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-hbcus-were-financially-fragile-before-covid-19-endangered-all-colleges-and-universities-140528">fewer donations</a> of <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/files/file/jga_million_dollar_ready_academic_working_paper_final_for_upload_2.pdf">$1 million or more</a> than other institutions, a pattern our colleague <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tyrone-mckinley-freeman-443150">Tyrone Freeman</a> has been studying for years. As a result, HBCU endowments are relatively small.</p>
<p>All told, the roughly 100 HBCUs have a total of <a href="https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/big-philanthropic-investments-a-bright-spot-for-hbcus-amid-financial-uncertainty-worsened-by-pandemic/">only $2 billion</a> in their endowments. By comparison, 54 predominantly white colleges and universities have $2 billion or more in their own endowment.</p>
<p>In 2018, for example, there were seven of these major gifts totaling $48 million. In contrast, there were at least 33 of these donations by mid-September of 2020, totaling $347 million, according a list of these donations of $1 million or more compiled by <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/research/million-dollar-list/index.html">The Chronicle of Philanthropy</a> and tracking by statistician <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/han-xiao.html">Xiao Han</a> of additional news reports and public information disclosed by donors and the schools. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-hbcus-were-financially-fragile-before-covid-19-endangered-all-colleges-and-universities-140528">philanthropic lifelines</a> for Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and other schools have totaled in the hundreds of millions of dollars from donors like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hbcu-record-donations-schools-histories-howard-hampton-xavier/">MacKenzie Scott</a> – Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife – <a>Netflix CEO Reed Hastings</a> and former New York City Mayor <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/bloomberg-equity-initiatives-first-investment-is-100-million-gift/">Michael Bloomberg</a>.</p>
<p>Corporate giving for Black colleges and other causes is also on the rise. In early June, the Financial Times reported that Microsoft, Google, Amazon and other large corporations had recently pledged at least <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5a83fcff-9def-4a66-b65d-2b030759f755">$458 million to support progress toward racial equity</a>, including support for higher education. All told, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-announces-100-million-racial-equity-and-justice-initiative/">Apple has said it donated $100 million or more</a> to assorted racial equity initiatives.</p>
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<h2>4. Black philanthropists are leading the way</h2>
<p>Donors from all backgrounds have turned their attention to increasing calls for racial equity. While new donors are turning their giving to racial equity issues, <a href="https://theconversation.com/400-years-of-black-giving-from-the-days-of-slavery-to-the-2019-morehouse-graduation-121402">wealthy African Americans</a> have contributed to causes that support racial justice and equity.</p>
<p>In recent years, we have continued to see affluent Black people, such as the entertainer and fashion icon <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2020/8/31/from-climate-resilience-to-covid-response-rihanna-is-becoming-a-major-philanthropic-player">Rihanna</a> and basketball great <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/06/05/michael-jordan--jordan-brand-pledge-100-million-to-racial-equality/#63c1ece95934">Michael Jordan</a>, make significant <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2019/10/21/why-michael-jordan-has-donated-30-million-to-activist-projects-including-health-clinics-and-hurricane-relief/#7ecbec0e7720">philanthropic commitments</a>.</p>
<p>Along with other colleagues at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and in partnership with the Bank of America, we are conducting a long-term <a href="https://www.privatebank.bankofamerica.com/articles/2018-us-trust-study-of-high-net-worth-philanthropy.html">research project regarding affluent donors</a>. Based on our findings in our 2018 report, at least half of all wealthy Black donors supported African American causes, compared to 6.5% overall of all surveyed donors.</p>
<p>Additionally, 43.8% of the wealthy Black donors surveyed indicated that they made giving to groups that aim to improve race relations a high priority, as opposed to an average of 5.7% all donors.</p>
<p>A diverse range of donors are also increasingly participating in providing large racial justice gifts. These gifts include <a href="https://www.newsbreak.com/news/0PFyaZKE/kroger-ceo-addresses-racial-injustice">Kroger supermarket chain CEO Rodney McMullen</a> and the hedge fund investor <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/a-220-million-investment-in-racial-justice">George Soros’ Open Society Foundations</a>.</p>
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<p>In mid-September, philanthropist <a href="https://medium.com/@susansandlerfund/my-cancer-milestone-and-my-philanthropic-legacy-a338d03bfc94">Susan Sandler</a> announced that she was giving a total of $200 million to an array of racial justice groups. Sandler’s disclosure echoed <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-takeaways-from-mackenzie-scotts-1-7-billion-in-support-for-social-justice-causes-143659">Scott’s announcement</a>, in <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">July 2020</a>, that she was giving $587 million to HBCUs and racial justice organizations.</p>
<p>That means established civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the Urban League, and newer racial justice groups like the <a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/project-aims-to-recognize-buncombe-county-lynching-victims">Equal Justice Initiative</a>, which aims to end mass incarceration and advance racial equity, and the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/28/21405770/google-assistant-feature-donation-center-of-policing-equity-racial-inequality">Center for Policing Equity</a>, a think tank focused on improving racial equity within police departments, are all getting a boost.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From thousands of people chipping in as little as $5 to George Floyd’s GoFundMe to donations well in excess of $1 million to HBCUs, anti-racist philanthropy is rising.Kim Williams-Pulfer, Postdoctoral Research Appointee-Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy, IUPUIUna Osili, Professor, Economics and Philanthropic Studies; Associate Dean for Research and International Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.