Various Types Of Philanthropy: MacKenzie Scott And Jeff Bezos

MacKenzie Scott, a writer, and the world's third-richest person have donated $4.2 billion to 384 nonprofit organizations. Her announcement began with a poem by Emily Dickinson. Then Scott wrote: “This pandemic is a huge ruining baseball in the lives of Americans presently struggling. Economic losses and wellness outcomes alike have now been worse for girls, for individuals of shade, and for folks living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”

Scott realizes the unequal impact of COVID-19 across cultural organizations and its contradictions: immiseration of numerous co-occurring with wealth expansion of few. To correct this, some might want the federal government to redistribute these super-normal wealth gains. For others, and in the spirit of Andrew Carnegie, redistribution is best done by private action.

Pinpointing Beneficiaries

But who must benefit from this redistribution?

Scott has apparent priorities: tackling short-term and long-term inequities. She helps businesses that offer food assistance, debt reduction, employment instruction, appropriate illustration, and knowledge to traditionally marginalized people.

When it comes to process, Scott's advisors began with 6,490 organizations. Then they took a heavy leap to the shortlisted 822 and eventually funded 384. Scott records that these businesses have strong management, “with special attention to this functioning in areas experiencing high predicted food insecurity, high steps of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.”

We discover the focus on “low access to philanthropic capital” to be revealing. MacKenzie Scott realizes inequities in society. But she also realizes inequities among personalities who are supposed to tackle societal inequities and does not want her philanthropy to reproduce them. This can be a remarkable strategy. Recently, the NGO segment has come under criticism for different causes, including how a small number of NGOs are dominating it and imposing their priorities on the beneficiaries they're anticipated to serve. Furthermore, the domination of the few means that the room for grassroots, community-driven personalities is shrinking. MacKenzie Scott wants to fix this development, or at least perhaps not perpetuate it. This provides a glimpse into her “principle of modifying,” where local, community-based businesses are at the forefront in providing food protection or fighting poverty in local communities.

How did Jeff Bezos Donate?

In November 2020, Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott's former husband, reported grants totaling $791 million. Unlike Scott, he funded 16 organizations. Further, he assigned three-fourths of donations to five businesses: The Environmental Security Account, The Nature Conservancy, Normal Assets Security Council (NRDC), the World Assets Institute, and the World Wildlife Account — each finding $100 million!

Unlike Scott, Bezos is focusing on weather issues. He's funding jobs such as for instance satellite checking of methane emissions, electrification of school buses, defense of the Emerald Edge coastal rainforest, and restoration of mangroves. The NRDC can be an exception since Bezos'grants may support its political advocacy generally speaking as opposed to advocacy for a specific trigger (such while the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Strategy, which Scott Bloomberg funded).