Billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott has recently donated $640M to over 300 nonprofit groups. After announcing her decision to donate on Tuesday, the former wife of the Amazon founder gave away a staggering amount to help people in difficult situations.
According to reports, MacKenzie Scott’s donation announcement came after Elon Musk accused her of “destroying Western civilization” by distributing money. Initially promising to donate $250M, Scott seemingly doubled the amount after Musk’s taunt. Now, her total donation turned out to be more than what Eternals and The Marvels earned at the box office combined.
MacKenzie Scott Donated $640M to Nonprofit Groups
Last year a nonprofit organization serving Los Angeles’ homeless and foster youth applied for a slice of billionaire MacKenzie Scott’s donation and expected to get $1M. However, to their surprise, as per the LA Times, the team at Youth Emerging Stronger recently learned that they are to be awarded $2M, as they were one among the non-profit community groups nationwide, who gained Scott’s donation.
According to NBC News, the billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, has recently donated $640M to over 300 nonprofit groups, after announcing her decision on Tuesday. The co-founder of Amazon thus kept her word of donating at least half of her wealth to charity as part of the Giving Pledge. Being the 41st-wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $36.2B, Scott chose from a pool of over 6,000 applicants and offered her money for a good cause.
The non-profit groups were chosen either via “quiet research” or through an “open call” application process. Giving away varied gifts of $1M to $2M, during the latest round of donations, MacKenzie Scott awarded nonprofit groups that focused on arts, affordable housing, education, public health, immigration, and diversity.
Elon Musk’s Taunt Made MacKenzie Scott Double Her Donation
Meanwhile, according to reports from BusinessInsider, MacKenzie Scott had initially planned to give away $250M, when she pledged last year. However, her decision seemingly changed after tech billionaire Elon Musk slammed her charity work through a now-deleted tweet. Although the SpaceX founder didn’t elaborate on why he criticized Scott, Musk has been a harsh critic of the efforts to promote corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse’ should filed be listed among ‘Reasons that Western Civilization died.’” Musk said via a now-deleted X post.
This isn’t the first time that Elon Musk attacked MacKenzie Scott’s charity work. Previously in 2022, Musk implied that his companies were being sidelined by the Democratic Party because Scott was buying her position with donations.
“Tesla was attacked by Romney in 2 of 3 presidential debates. Those lines were fed to him by a particular individual in the oil & gas industry. The Dems turned negative over the past ~12 months. At least part of it is Mackenzie’s donation to PACs posing as charities.” Musk tweeted.
Although MacKenzie Scott never personally commented on Elon Musk’s taunts or mean tweets, this time she seemingly slapped back by doubling her donation.
Fans React to MacKenzie Scott’s Staggering Donation
After MacKenzie Scott added onto her previous staggering amount of $250M to make it $640M, the billionaire made headlines for donating more money than what Eternals and The Marvels earned at the box office combined. With Eternals earning $402M and The Marvels making $206M, they both made a combined box office collection of $608M, which still fell short of $32M compared to Scott’s donation.
Jeff Bezos 😭😂 pic.twitter.com/Qv4cY4NeX3
— Samira (@Logical_Girll) March 20, 2024
I don’t consider it to be very charitable if you have to brag about it
— 𝐂𝐨𝐲𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤™ (@1onlyCoyoteJack) March 20, 2024
Stop acting like she’s just giving out money. Tax write offs. She doesn’t want that money taxed!
— keeneye777 (@realgoattalk1) March 20, 2024
was the flex photo op necessary?
— Catching Karens (@mizzstik) March 20, 2024
Why do they need to capture these kinds of pictures? If you want to donate, be silent.
There's no need for everyone to know how much you donate.
Follow Keanu step, please.
— Y.A (@YustinusAlbert) March 21, 2024
In my opinion it’s all a way for her to avoid Taxes.
Won’t be surprised if the nonprofits all belong to her.— ✝️ Evel Knievel 🔱 (@Wayne_Kent20) March 20, 2024
While the non-profit groups and most US citizens are happy with the donation, MacKenzie Scott faces online trolling. Taking to X netizens share their opinion on Scott’s staggering donation, claiming that the billionaire is simply flexing her money. Calling out Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife for bragging about her donation, twitteratis claimed that Scott is actually giving out the money because she doesn’t want that money taxed.