When MacKenzie Scott began an epic giving spree in 2020 that, to date, has resulted in more than $14 billion in grants to over 1,600 nonprofit organizations worldwide, many philanthropy watchers were hopeful it was the dawn of a new era.
However, three years later, Scott’s style of giving, which provides large sums of money without any restrictions on how recipients spend it, is still the exception in a world where many of the wealthiest people give away less than 10% of their annual income, if at all. And with economic concerns growing globally, the odds of more donors joining her rank seem even slimmer.
“When MacKenzie Scott started making those gifts, I was among many people who were hopeful that maybe this was going to be the beginning of a new resurgence of funding and that other philanthropists were going to say ‘look at all these amazing organizations that have already been vetted and are ready to be funded,’ Gabrielle Fitzgerald, founder of Panorama Global, a philanthropy advisory firm that has examined the impact of Scott’s giving.