Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife Mackenzie Scott has become one of the biggest individual donors in the US as well as world in recent years, giving away billions of dollars after her divorce in 2019. According to Forbes, Scott has donated $26.4 billion in less than seven years, including an estimated $7.2 billion in 2025 alone. Mackenzie Scott’s donations recently landed her on Forbes Iconoclast 50 list. Forbes said that Scott’s annual total donation is the largest amount donated by any individual worldwide since it began tracking charitable giving in 2012. Scott, who received a large stake in Amazon as part of her 2019 divorce settlement, has now given away more than 75% of the Amazon shares she received and remains one of the world’s wealthiest women with a net worth of about $33.1 billion.
Mackenzie Scott’s key donations include support for HBCUs
A significant portion of Mackenzie Scott’s philanthropy has gone to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which have traditionally faced funding challenges compared to many other US institutions.Among her largest recent donations was an $80 million unrestricted gift to Howard University in 2025. Prairie View A&M University received $63 million, bringing Scott’s total donations to the university to $113 million after an earlier $50 million contribution in 2020.Other institutions that have received major donations from Mackenzie Scott include Morgan State University, Spelman College, Virginia State University and Winston-Salem State University. Unlike many traditional charitable donations, Scott’s gifts are often unrestricted, allowing institutions to decide how to use the funds.
What is Forbes Iconoclast 50 list
Forbes launched the Iconoclast summit in 2022 to convene a forum for the world’s most influential leaders in finance, industry, entertainment and media and technology. As described on the website, the idea was to gather and probe the world’s leading minds for direction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the planet. While the pandemic seems far in the rearview mirror, 2026 brings a new set of imminent challenges and opportunities, from the War in Iran to the onslaught of artificial intelligence.Forbes’ new Iconoclast 50 list recognizes leaders in finance, business, technology, media, entertainment and philanthropy that are changing the game in real time, disrupting their industries and challenging the status quo. Think of it as the VIP of the Forbes Universe: the billionaire founders, CEOs, investors, entertainers, athletes and philanthropists whose decisions reverberate across markets, industries and cultures worldwide. Collectively, this year’s honorees represent more than $2.5 trillion in wealth.The 2026 Iconoclast 50 has ten honorees who are women, and roughly one-quarter are immigrants. Their educational backgrounds are equally varied: while many attended elite institutions such as Harvard, Wharton and Stanford, 13 never completed college and two left school before earning a high school diploma.
What Forbes profile says about Mackenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott is a philanthropist, author and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to whom she was married for 25 years. As part of their 2019 divorce, she received a 4% stake in the online retailer.In May 2019, shortly after she announced the terms of the divorce on Twitter, she signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of her wealth over the course of her lifetime. On a website called Yield Giving, Scott shares details of the $19.3 billion she has given to more than 2,500 nonprofits.Scott employs a “no strings attached” style of giving, wherein the nonprofits to which she donates have full control over how to best deploy the new funds. Scott, who has published two novels, was a student of author Toni Morrison at Princeton and worked as a research assistant for her.