The ever-elusive philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave two large gifts last month totaling $120 million to support Black and Native American college students. The gifts appear to be among the first of her donations announced this year.
Of the total, she gave $70 million to UNCF, a national education charity that provides scholarships to Black students and gives scholarship money to 37 private historically Black colleges and universities. The donation will support UNCF’s Members Pooled Endowment Fund, an endowment that supports all 37 of the HBCU members of the nonprofit.
Scott, a writer whose $33 billion fortune comes from Amazon stock, also gave $50 million to the Native Forward Scholars Fund. The organization provides scholarships, career development, and education support to Native American undergraduate and graduate students. Angelique Albert, the nonprofit’s CEO, said in a news release that the gift is unrestricted and will allow her organization to “meet Native students where they are, respond to their most pressing needs, and ensure they not only enroll, but thrive and graduate.”
Both nonprofits received comparatively smaller donations from Scott in 2020. Scott gave Native Forward Scholars Fund $20 millionthat year and the group used the money to create six new scholarships and a scholarship endowment fund, provide students with a range of wraparound services, and it helped Native Forward purchase its own building. She gave UNCF $10 million that same year to back the nonprofit’s emergency reserve fund.
Scott has given about $19.4 billion to more than 2,450 nonprofits over the last five years. She typically leaves it up to the nonprofits whether to announce that they’ve received a donation from her. In past years she wrote essays each time she gave out a large group of gifts. The essays laid out her thoughts about what was driving her giving that year, but she has not posted any such treatises since her last one in December 2024, when she announced plans to invest in for-profit companies and funds seeking solutions to societal challenges in housing, health, and other areas.
Other Recent Big Gifts Include:
- Matthew and Joyce Walsh gave $150 million to the University of Notre Dame to support and expand the School of Architecture, which will be renamed for the couple. Matthew Walsh is a co-chairman of Walsh Construction, in Chicago. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the university in 1968, and two of the couple’s children have earned degrees from Notre Dame. The Walshes gave the university $33 million in 2013 to construct a new School of Architecture building. It opened in 2018.
- Billionaire Walmart heir Rob Walton gave $115 million through his Rob Walton Foundation to Arizona State University to establish the School of Conservation Futures. The school’s programs will focus on preparing the next generation of conservation leaders. Walton is a retired chairman of Walmart, the retail giant founded by his parents, Sam and Helen Walton. He joined Walmart in 1969 and served in a range of roles before retiring as chairman in 2015. Prior to joining Walmart, he was a partner with Conner & Winters, a law firm in Tulsa, Okla. He appeared on the Chronicle’s Philanthropy 50 listof the most generous donors for a donation he made to his foundation in 2015.
- Cindy and Scott Heider gave $100 million through their Heider Family Foundation to Creighton University to help pay for the construction of a 12-block recreational and athletic corridor on the east side of the university’s campus. The effort will renovate existing structures and build new ones. When completed, the university will have a new student fitness center, upgraded and new sports centers, new outdoor spaces, and a pedestrian walkway. Scott Heider is the managing principal of Chartwell Capital, an Omaha investment firm.
- John Durstine left $100 millionto Georgia Tech to establish endowed chairs, professorships, and faculty awards in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Durstine graduated from Georgia Tech in 1957 with a degree in mechanical engineering, and later an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked for the Ford Motor Company 32 years and helped lead the company’s truck and light vehicle design, powertrain strategy, and advanced systems engineering. He died in February.
- Larry Gies pledged $100 million to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to support the Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. The university’s Illinois Memorial Stadium will be renamed Gies Memorial Stadium, in honor of the donor’s late father, Larry Gies, Sr., a U.S. Army veteran. The donor founded and leads Madison Industries, a holding company in Chicago. He graduated from the university in 1988.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
