Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is back to doing what she does best, which is donating huge amounts of money! This time, ACE | Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs was on the receiving end of a generous $10 million gift. The substantial amount will greatly impact the Georgia-based nonprofit’s mission to fuel the growth of businesses around the state. If the organization could use its initial grant of $50,000 to help North Georgia and metro Atlanta’s entrepreneurs thrive for more than twenty years, they can surely achieve even more with $10 million.
In the past two decades of service, the firm has provided $200 million in loans, helped create over 21,000 jobs, and serves women, minorities, and those in low-income communities. The unrestricted gift was announced to Grace Fricks, ACE founder and CEO, over a phone call with a representative sharing the great news and confirming it in a confidential follow-up letter. The $10 million will propel ACE’s five-year strategic plan, which includes distributing $300 million to 1,500 small businesses in Georgia and providing 100,000 hours of business advisory services.
According to Forbes, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $33.3 billion, is the second-largest shareholder of Amazon, and has donated over $16.5 billion to around 1,600 nonprofits by selling billions worth of shares for charity. Her last act of benevolence was towards the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative worth $4 million. As is the case with Scott’s unprallled generosity, this gift also came with no strings attached on how the money is spent.
