MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated millions of her personal wealth to historically Black colleges and universities.
Scott recently noted on Twitter that she dropped the ‘Bezos’ surname and is now using the “middle name I grew up with, after my grandfather Scott,” she wrote. As the third richest woman in the world, Scott announced in a Medium blog post on Tuesday that she has donated $1.7 billion to charity.
Among the beneficiaries are Howard University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Hampton University. Each confirmed that they received the largest single donation in their schools’ history.
“I would like to thank Ms. Mackenzie Scott for her investment into Howard University and our 153-year mission of serving a diverse community of dynamic scholars who come here for an education and leave here with purpose to serve the world,” Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick said in a statement. “We plan to immediately put this eight-figure gift to good use to support components of our 5-year strategic plan to help students graduate on time, retain our talented faculty, enhance our campus infrastructure and support academic innovation and entrepreneurship.”
