ARTICLE

Can Your Nonprofit Access MacKenzie Scott Foundation Giving?

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Two hands exchanging money, represented by a paper bag with a dollar sign on it, for resources, represented by a light bulb.

Much has been written about the extraordinary grant making of businesswomen, MacKenzie Scott. With a net worth of $65.3B, there are a lot of MacKenzie Scott funds available.

Scott is a member of the Giving Pledge. When she signed the pledge she said:

“I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”

Despite its name, the pledge is not legally binding.

The NonProfit Quarterly’s editor Ruth McCambridge wrote this terrific background piece, and CANDID wrote this one sharing the experience of nonprofit CEOs who received her largesse.

Here’s What We Know About How To Apply To Receive MacKenzie Scott Foundation Funds

Three LAPA clients have received MacKenzie Scott funds in the millions; here’s what we know:

1. Many of the nonprofits that received an award had a strong pre-existing relationship.

2. Yet for many other nonprofits the award came ‘without warning.’ The awards are usually unrestricted, and the nonprofits simply received notice by email.

3. MacKenzie Scott seems to be nonresponsive to traditional approaches (there is no application process) and operates much more like a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). As you probably know, DAFs are not public entities so there’s no application process, unless the donor decides to make the process public, which Ms. Scott has not chosen to do. A donor advised fund is NOT a private foundation, nor does it operate as such. There is no required distributions as of yet, although there is proposed legislation to change that.

4. Ms. Scott’s funding operation has no known address — or even website.

The point is that she’s more likely to find you if you fall within her funding priorities. Even if you had her mailing address I doubt it would matter.

She refers to a “team of advisers” rather than a large, dedicated staff. Her team of advisors helps her give her wealth away faster. Her team’s focus has been on “identifying organizations with strong leadership teams and results. Her priorities are 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.” She describes the advisors here on her Medium blog. You can subscribe to her blog to receive her future posts.

5. Ms. Scott works on who to give her funding to with the Bridgespan Group, a national nonprofit organization that advises charities and philanthropies, including prominent philanthropists like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg. Bridgespan will not take calls or interviews about their client. It is unclear if the team of advisors to which she refers is one and the same as the Bridgespan Group but many of us in the fundraising world believe it to be so.

What’s To Come For Future Funding?

Scott has now given away about $8.6 billion to 786 recipients since she announced her first gifts in July 2020. And because Amazon’s stock price keeps climbing, she has even more to give than when she started.

If she keeps up her current pace and frequency, she should be making another 220 or so charitable organizations more financially robust by the end of this year.

Here are my projections of what nonprofits might expect to see in terms of her future funding — I’d bet my bottom dollar on them:

Equity-oriented non-profits working in areas that have been neglected will get more support, including some truly transformative gifts.
High-impact nonprofits in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked will take priority.
Ms. Scott is a firm believer that higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity, so 2- and 4-year institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved will receive significant funding.
Ms. Scott is concerned about discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, so nonprofits bridging divides through interfaith support and collaboration will benefit.
Smaller arts organizations will be funded because they benefit artists and audiences from culturally rich regions and identity groups that donors often overlook.

What’s been your experience in cultivating or receiving MacKenzie Scott funds? Please let us know on the blog.

Laurence Pagnoni, MPA

Laurence Pagnoni, MPA, is chairman of LAPA Fundraising, serving nonprofits throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is author of "The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution," the first book on fundraising ever published by the American Management Association, as well as “Fundraising 401: Masterclasses in Nonprofit Fundraising That Would Make Peter Drucker Proud.”

Comments

John

Where to start? We volunteer at a after school program. Five to 12 years old. We currently serve 125 kids , snacks provided by east Texas food bank, we help with homework, crafts and outside fun. We need funding. We waste too much time trying to get funding when we could be working with kids. We are going to expand to 300 kids! Our community is 65% Hispanic and we meet ALL of Ms Scott’s visions. Boys and Girls Club backed out on us after we purchased our building so we took the leap of faith. Oh did I mention we need funding help. This is a great program and wish we could get a second look. Thank you
Cyrus Williams

This is inspirational piece. Being new to development, I hunger for how to sustain our museum. This motivation helps. Thank you.
Linda Cerra

Inspiring! Giving back to our communities gives such hope for the future.
Vatricia A McKinney

I have been receiving text messages from someone claiming to be Ms. Scott personal assistant. Should I believe them or doI report it as a scam?
Meliha Avdic

What if you've had someone contact you and claim that it's MacKenzie Scott but everything is odd, like a scam? Has anyone had experience with that?
Maureen Diederich

Thank you for this article. It was very informative. Hopefully she finds us!
Carlotta Blount

Thank you so much for posting this because I been searching for weeks could not determine what was correct. Very smart the way she is doing this process. It is a shame that people will criticize her because of her grant process. She has the right to decide how she gives her money. Thanks again for the greatly written article.
Cynthia Haymon

Thank you for this detailed article. I have been wondering how to apply for grants from her organization since it announced her desire to assist nonprofits in underserved communities.
Nancy Torrison

Thank you for this article, it has been difficult to understand how to apply for a grant, and now I know I can't so that is helpful.
L. Ernestine Fields, Esq.

Thank you for a very informative article. It is very unusual NOT to have an application process in place. But for your article, I would have spent hours trying to find Mackenzie Scott's application "hidden" on the internet!
Andrea H

Great article. I hope she stays strong and keep doing what she is doing. Not having a website etc might be a good idea - then she is not bombarded with reuests - allows her to be free to do what she wants.
Pamela Van Cortlandt

Thank you for your very informative article.
Jessica Detor

Would be great if there was a way to get topics shared for funding interest. We have a mental health access issue in my area for youth that has recently taken lives by suicide. (I know this is not just the case in my town).
Christine Pharr

I wish that I had a way to get her attention because I lead a small college that is majority minority, that has very under resourced students and that is in Milwaukee which is known as the most segregated city In the country. We fit the demographic of everything she is funding and yet I don’t know how to get her attention. I would love to talk to her if she would ever give me the opportunity. My school is Mount Mary University and we are the number one university in the midwest for social mobility. This means we graduate a higher percentage of low income students Than anyone else in the Midwest. I would appreciate any advice about how to get her or her advisers to notice us because we are doing what she values!
Yvette BUTLER-YEBOAH

This was a very interesting read. Many of us out here with a small non-profit find it VERY hard to break into the funding cycle. Plus, as a Black female founded non-profit...it is even harder. How do we get recognize for our HARDwork and OUTSTANDING community impact when the dollars are not flowing...
How Mackenzie Scott Managed Her Money... | Qrius

[…] nearly all donors operating on a big scale, she has no offices and, so far, no website. She’s been criticized for a lack of transparency, especially after she didn’t divulge details […]
Shoshana Reuben

There is a scam foundation site impersonating her and her husband that people should be aware of. Thank you for putting here that she does not have a website or application process. That fake site wants the grant writer to include a copy of their driver's license! No telling how many other fake sites are out there because she doesn't have a real site.
Vincent D.Stravino

Good article about a secretive but generous philanthropy. Informative and well written.