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Jeff Bezos' Ex-Wife MacKenzie Scott Donates $4.1 Billion To Food Banks

Jeff Bezos' Ex-Wife MacKenzie Scott Donates $4.1 Billion To Food Banks

It comes a few months after she gave $1.68bn to non-profit organisations

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Mackenzie Scott has revealed that she has donated more than $4.1 billion (£3bn) to 384 food banks and charities.

The philanthropist and former partner of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has written a blog post explaining how the global pandemic allowed her to gain a new perspective on life.

And she revealed that she and her team had decided to increase the amount she was giving to those in need.

Posting on Medium, the 50-year-old described the pandemic as 'a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling', and said she wanted to do something to help.

She wrote: "After my post in July, I asked a team of advisors to help me accelerate my 2020 giving through immediate support to people suffering the economic effects of the crisis.

"They 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.

Mackenzie Scott donated over $4bn to hundreds of food banks and charities.
PA

"The result over the last four months has been $4,158,500,000 in gifts to 384 organisations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C."

"Some are filling basic needs: 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 defence funds that take on institutional discrimination."

Ms Scott also appeared to take a swipe at her ex and other multi-billionaires who had actually benefited from this disastrous year.

She added: "Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of colour, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires."

She took a swipe at billionaires like her ex-husband who had benefitted from the pandemic.
PA

One of the companies to have benefitted from Ms Scott's latest donations, receiving $10 million (£7.4m), is Craft3, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that invests in businesses run by people of colour.

In a statemet, Adam Zimmerman, president and CEO of Craft3, said: "We are incredibly honoured by the recognition that comes with this unprecedented gift. Community Development Financial Institutions are the front line of inclusive, equitable finance in the United States."

This comes a few months after Scott, whose fortune of $60bn (£44bn) - as per Bloomberg's billionaire list - makes her the richest woman in the world, donated $1.68bn (£1.24bn) to 116 nonprofits, community development groups, and legal organisations.

In a blog post back in July, 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."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Pandemic, jeff bezos, Coronavirus, US News, Amazon, Covid-19