Jeff Bezos' Ex-Wife MacKenzie Scott Just Donated $1.67 Billion To Charity

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has just revealed the extent of her philanthropy in a new blog post.

The 50-year-old was married to Bezos between 1993 to 2019, however when they got divorced, she became the world's third richest woman.

As part of her divorce settlement, she gained a 4 percent stake in Amazon, making her worth around USD $36 billion (£27bn / AUD $50.3bn). But she's decided to put a portion of that enormous wealth to good use.

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Ms Scott has donated USD $1.67bn (£1.29bn / AUD $2.34bn) to a bunch of charities and organisations geared towards BAME and LGBTQ communities, as well as climate change and other issues.

In a blog post on Medium, MacKenzie wrote: "Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror. Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems; or waking us up to the fact that a civilisation this imbalanced is not only unjust, but also unstable.

"What fills me with hope is the thought of what will come if each of us reflects on what we can offer."

And she has offered up a lot.

Since getting access to the funds from her divorce settlement, she has donated to the following groups:

• Racial Equity: $ 586.7 million (£454.6 million/AUD$821 million)
• LGBTQ+ Equity: $ 46 million (£35.5 million /AUD$64 million)
• Gender Equity: $ 133 million (£102 million/AUD$185 million)
• Economic Mobility: $ 399.5 million (£309 million/AUD$558 million)
• Empathy & Bridging Divides: $ 55 million (£42 million/AUD$76 million)
• Functional Democracy: $ 72 million (£55 million/AUD$100 million)
• Public Health: $ 128.3 million (£99 million/AUD$179 million)
• Global Development: $ 130 million (£100 million/AUD$181 million)
• Climate Change: $ 125 million (£96 million/AUD$174 million)

Ms Scott's blog post continued: "Opportunities that flowed from the mere chance of skin colour, sexual orientation, gender, or zip code may have yielded resources that can be powerful levers for change.

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"People troubled by recent events can make new connections between privileges they've enjoyed and benefits they've taken for granted. From there, many will choose to share some of what they have with people whose equal participation is essential to the construction of a better world.

"I began work to complete my pledge with the belief that my life had yielded two assets that could be of particular value to others: the money these systems helped deliver to me, and a conviction that people who have experience with inequities are the ones best equipped to design solutions."

She's one of many billionaires who have donated to worthy causes during 2020.

Her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, has said he will commit $10bn to fight climate change, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey has donated more than $171 million, and Warren Buffett pledged shares from Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which are worth nearly $3bn.

Topics: News, jeff bezos, Amazon

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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