Someone once said, “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” In the case of megadonor MacKenzie Scott, both are on full display. The sums she gives away are astronomical, and so is her intention to leave the world better than she found it.
The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has donated $18 million to Alaska Pacific University. She ended the year on a noble note in December, giving through Yield Giving, her charitable foundation, a generous gift to the private, not-for-profit university in Anchorage that was founded in 1957. The institution was created so young Alaskans would not have to leave the state to access a quality university education. In its nearly 70-year history, this is the largest unrestricted donation ever given to the small, private liberal arts college.
For a university with fewer than 600 students, the scale of the gift is extraordinary. Donations of this magnitude are typically reserved for large coastal universities with global endowments, not small Alaskan campuses built to serve local communities. According to Seattle Times, Janelle Vanasse, president of APU, said, “We were just so excited and so grateful for such a large gift. It just felt like a recognition of a lot of work we’ve been doing to make APU what it is.” Vanasse shared that the money will be placed into a quasi-endowment fund and directed toward tuition assistance for students, as well as facilities upgrades across campus. On cold-climate campuses, “facilities” often means high-cost essentials such as heating systems, snow-load and moisture mitigation, and long-deferred maintenance.
APU’s annual budget is about $25 million, and Scott’s gift nearly doubles the university’s current endowment. What makes the donation even more remarkable is that APU did not apply for the funding at all. The $18 million gift alone equals roughly 70% of the university’s annual budget, a level of impact that can permanently alter the institution’s financial trajectory. The university also aligns closely with the kinds of institutions Scott has said she wants to support. In her words, “Higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity, so we looked for two- and four-year institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved.”
APU isn’t just a teaching institution. It is also a research campus with Arctic-relevant work spanning marine biology, ecology, and glaciology, with programs designed to include Indigenous knowledge. In a state that sits on the front lines of climate change, this research carries significance far beyond Alaska’s borders. Around 20% of APU’s student body is Indigenous, and 88% of its students come from within Alaska. The university is recognized as an Alaska Native-serving and tribally controlled institution, placing it at the intersection of higher education, cultural preservation, and community-led research.
Scott, true to her word, committed in 2020 to give away most of her wealth. In 2025 alone, she donated more than $7 billion to 225 organizations nationwide, part of a broader giving effort that has crossed $25 billion since 2019. All of it has come with no strings attached, including the $18 million gift to APU. For Alaska, and for a university built to serve its people in one of the world’s harshest and most consequential environments, it must feel exceptionally warm as a gesture in the depths of winter.