Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of centibillionaire Jeff Bezos, worth $202 billion, continues to reign as the second-largest shareholder of Amazon. The author received almost 4% of Amazon’s shares as part of the couple’s high-profile 2019 divorce. She has been donating enthusiastically and perpetually since then and is still left with cool billion-dollar bundles of 184.28 million Amazon shares worth $34.09 billion (as per today’s closing price of Amazon stock of $185 per share). If there is anyone who could embody the phrase, ‘you get when you give,’ it is the 54-year-old philanthropist.
Despite having donated over $16.5 billion to around 1,600 nonprofits by selling billions worth of shares for charity, she still is the second-largest shareholder owing to the company’s success. One might think her fortune would dwindle owing to her unprecedented philanthropy—$16.5 billion is a monumental amount even for one of the wealthiest people on the planet—but with Amazon share prices increasing, she seems to be in a win-win position.
In 2019, Scott signed the Giving Pledge and aims to donate most of her wealth. In 2023 alone, Mackenzie Scott sold 65 million Amazon shares worth over $10 billion. She continues to give with both hands. In 2024, she has already donated $3 million to a Chicago-based nonprofit, Hire360, to construct its Training and Business Development Center. Last month, she donated $2 million to the Columbia Heights Dance School in Washington, D.C., which will equip the Institute’s efforts to drive societal change through dance education.
