MacKenzie Scott emerged as the world’s most generous philanthropist in , donating a total of $7.2 billion to 186 organizations. This figure represents the largest single-year donation since Forbes began tracking top donors in .
Of that $7.2 billion, at least $760 million went to 18 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), continuing a pattern of discretion that has characterized her philanthropy since her divorce from Jeff Bezos: minimal publicity and few conditions attached to the gifts.
Scott’s donations this year focused heavily on education. She has donated $26.4 billion to more than 2,500 organizations in under seven years. This places her just behind Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates in lifetime philanthropic giving, despite their efforts spanning much longer periods. Scott, whose estimated $30 billion net worth is largely tied to her Amazon stake from her former marriage, pledged in to donate the bulk of her fortune to charity, and appears to be accelerating toward that goal. Her giving significantly surpassed the $2.6 billion and $2.1 billion she donated in and , respectively.
“This dollar total will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year,” Scott wrote in a blog post. She highlighted the $471 billion donated to U.S. Charities in , noting that nearly a third came from gifts under $5,000, as evidence of the power of collective philanthropy.
Approximately 120 of the nearly 200 organizations supported by Scott in were repeat grantees. The largest single grant, worth $90 million, went to Forests, People, Climate (FPC), a collaborative charitable effort focused on reversing tropical deforestation, bringing its total funding to over $1 billion.
Scott leads a group of billionaires recognized for donating a significant percentage of their wealth to nonprofit organizations. Alongside her, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates have contributed more money in absolute terms, but over considerably longer timeframes. Forbes’ list of America’s top 25 philanthropists also includes Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP. George Soros, founder of the Open Society Foundations; Marilyn Simons, widow of quantitative trading pioneer Jim Simons; Steve Ballmer and Connie, former Microsoft CEO and his wife; Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, CEO of Meta; Sergei Brin, Google co-founder; Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos; Phil and Penny Knight, Nike co-founder; Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founder, and his wife Cari Tuna; Barbara Picower, widow of Jeffry Picower, the largest beneficiary of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme; Lynn and Stacy Schusterman, wife and daughter of oil magnate Charles Schusterman; Edythe Broad and family, owners of the Broad museum in Los Angeles; Michael Dell and Susan, president and CEO of Dell Technologies and his wife; Pierre and Pam Omidyar, founders of eBay; Eric Schmidt and Wendy, former Google CEO and his wife; Billi Marcus and family, Home Depot co-founder; Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel; George Kaiser, president of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company; John and Laura Arnold, founders of Arnold Ventures; Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder; Donald Bren, the wealthiest real estate mogul in the United States; and Charles Koch, co-owner of Koch Industries.
According to Forbes, four of these philanthropists have given away 40% or more of their net worth, and 17 have donated at least 10% of their fortunes. In comparison, of the 12 wealthiest individuals in the country, only Warren Buffett has reached that 10% threshold, solidifying his position as the greatest philanthropist of all time.
Notably, not all of the wealthiest billionaires feature among the top 25 donors. Only half of the 12 richest Americans are included in the ranking. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and Larry Page, Google co-founder, whose combined wealth exceeds $1 trillion, are absent from the Forbes list.
Collectively, the top 25 American donors have contributed $275 billion throughout their lifetimes, $34 billion more than the previous year. However, these figures represent only 14% of their combined fortunes, the lowest percentage recorded since .
