MacKenzie Scott gifts over $4b of her Amazon fortune to coronavirus relief funds

MacKenzie Scott has gifted away over $4 billion of her Amazon fortune to coronavirus relief funds in the past four months. 

Taking to Medium, ex-wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said she has given away $4,158,500,000 in gifts to 384 organisations across all 50 American states, Peurto Rico and Washington DC.

Scott said she asked her team of advisors in July to help accelerate 2020 giving “through immediate support to people suffering the economic effects of the crisis.”

“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote. “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty.”

“Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”

The American novelist said her team took a data-driven approach to identifying organisations with strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.

The organisations  include food banks, emergency relief funds, and support services for those most vulnerable.

“Others are addressing long-term systemic inequities that have been deepened by the crisis: debt relief, employment training, credit and financial services for under-resourced communities, education for historically marginalised and underserved people, civil rights advocacy groups, and legal defense funds that take on institutional discrimination.”

Last year, Scott signed the Giving Pledge in a commitment to donate the majority of her fortune after her split from Bezos - the world’s richest man - left her with a 4% stake in Amazon.