MacKenzie Scott Donates $70M To UNCF For HBCU Funding

Supply: Dia Dipasupil / Getty

Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, is out right here doing all the nice work her former hubby by no means did by taking a pleasant slice of her fortune and donating it to the reason for strengthening the inspiration of our nation’s traditionally Black schools and universities.

In keeping with CNN, Scott has donated $70 million to the United Negro Faculty Fund (UNCF), America’s largest non-public supplier of scholarships to minority college students, which is on a mission to lift $1 billion to strengthen all 37 of its HBCUs.

“This extraordinary reward is a robust vote of confidence in HBCUs and within the work of UNCF,” the nonprofit’s President and CEO, Dr. Michael L. Lomax, mentioned in a press release. “It gives a once-in-a-generation alternative for our member establishments to construct everlasting belongings that can assist college students and campuses for many years to come back.”

From CNN:

Lomax mentioned Scott’s donation could be used for UNCF’s pooled endowment, which goals to ascertain a $370 million fund — $10 million for every UNCF member HBCU. That fund can be invested and designed to pay out about 4% yearly, which is able to then be divided among the many HBCUs to assist stabilize their budgets. Rising HBCU endowments is a precedence since they path endowments at non-HBCUs by 70%, in line with the UNCF.

The broader $1 billion fundraising effort is an try to assist HBCUs tackle the funding disparity they face when in comparison with different schools and universities. A 2023 research by philanthropic analysis group Candid and ABFE, a nonprofit that advocates for investments in Black communities, discovered that the eight Ivy League colleges acquired $5.5 billion from the 1,000 largest US foundations in comparison with $45 million for the 99 HBCUs in 2019.

As we’ve beforehand reported, the underfunding of HBCUs has been a “power” situation, even after they acquired over $2.7 billion in federal funding beneath President Joe Biden’s administration beneath the American Rescue Plan. In fact, the present administration has solely made the way forward for HBCU funding extra unsure. In February, President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI insurance policies precipitated the suspension of a scholarship program for HBCUs by the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA).

Then, in April, Trump signed an govt order presupposed to “Promote Excellence and Innovation at Traditionally Black Faculties and Universities,” however that order additionally rescinded orders associated to HBCUs signed by Biden, as a result of these orders, apparently, violated Trump’s order that terminated “unlawful DEI and ‘range, fairness, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, insurance policies, packages, preferences, and actions within the Federal Authorities.” Then, this month, the Trump administration mentioned it’s going to redirect $435 million to HBCUs “because it defunds grant packages for different minority college students at different establishments,” in line with Capital B Information. (So, principally, the Trump administration is out right here fixing issues it created once more.)

As for Scott, who CNN famous “acquired the majority of her fortune after divorcing” Bezos, she wrote in 2020 that her funding selections had been “pushed by a deep perception within the worth completely different backgrounds convey to problem-solving on any situation.” Outdoors of knowledge that may be discovered on her web site, Scott hasn’t made any public statements about her newest act of generosity in the direction of HBCUs. (Seems that some individuals do good with out utilizing it as a chance to clout chase.)

So, a giant, grateful shout-out to MacKenzie Scott. It’s good to see there are a minimum of just a few billionaires on the market who know what to do with all of that wealth.

Salute!