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MacKenzie Scott, World’s Second Richest Woman, Donates $1.7 Billion in Pledge to Give Away Wealth

Writing under a new last name, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife she said “watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror.”

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, announced Tuesday that she had given away nearly $1.7 billion to nonprofits promoting initiatives ranging from racial equity to economic mobility to public health. Writing a Medium post under her new last name of Scott following her July 2019 divorce, she said, “Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror...Though this work is ongoing and will last for years, I’m posting an update today because my own reflection after recent events revealed a dividend of privilege I’d been overlooking: the attention I can call to organizations and leaders driving change.” She listed 116 charities she had donated to in the post. Scott, the second richest woman in the world, pledged last year to donate at least half of her wealth, which totals at least $36 billion.