MacKenzie Scott gave away so much money in 2025 that she alone accounted for one-third of all American megagifts that year. Of the $19.2 billion in megagifts made by donors in 2025, Scott's giving represented one-third, according to data provided to Fortune from Giving USA and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She has said she wants to keep her philanthropy quiet, but her giving keeps making a splash anyway.
MacKenzie Scott's $7 Billion Giving Year
Scott had her banner philanthropic year in 2025, when she donated about $7 billion. That brought her cumulative giving to $26.2 billion in just five years.
Her donations went across thousands of organizations. The causes she focused on included housing, DEI, disaster recovery, and many more.
How Scott Compares to Other 2025 Megadonors
Scott's giving stood far above other major American donors in 2025. The other megadonors that year included:
- Michael Bloomberg — $4.3 billion
- Bill Gates — $3.7 billion
- Warren Buffett — $1.34 billion
- Susan and Michael Dell — nearly $1 billion
To put it plainly, Scott gave more than Bloomberg and Gates combined. Her single-year total of about $7 billion was larger than any other donor on the list by a wide margin.
Why MacKenzie Scott's Quiet Giving Still Makes News
Scott has tried to keep her philanthropy out of the spotlight. She does not run press events around her donations. She does not attach her name to buildings or programs in the way many major donors do.
But the numbers themselves tell the story. When one person accounts for one-third of all megagifts in a country in a single year, the scale of that giving is hard to ignore — no matter how quietly it is done.
Her five-year total of $26.2 billion across thousands of organizations also shows a pattern. This is not a one-time gift or a single foundation project. It is a steady, large-scale transfer of wealth to groups working on housing, equity, disaster recovery, and other causes.
Our Take: Scott's Giving Sets a New Bar for American Philanthropy
In our view, this story matters for two reasons. First, the numbers are simply huge. One donor covering one-third of a $19.2 billion total is not normal, even among billionaires. Second, Scott is proving that big giving does not need a big stage.
Most megadonors build foundations, hire staff, and announce grants with fanfare. Scott does the opposite. She gives fast, gives wide, and says little. The result is that thousands of organizations get money they might never have received from a traditional foundation process.
There is a fair question here too. When one private individual moves this much money, the public has little say in where it goes. That is true of all private philanthropy, but Scott's scale makes the question sharper. Still, compared to donors who park money in foundations for decades, Scott's approach puts dollars to work quickly.
For readers, the takeaway is simple. American megagiving is now dominated by a small group of billionaires, and one of them — MacKenzie Scott — is rewriting how that giving is done. Quietly, but at a scale no one can miss.
