Portland, OR. Artists and arts organizations in Oregon are receiving a $4 million gift from Pacific Northwest philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Her most recent donations total more than $2.7 billion for 286 nonprofits, most with missions that have historically received little from philanthropy.
Scott is the former wife of Jeff Bezos, and one of the world’s richest people. They were married for 25 years. She was one of Amazon’s first employees and was heavily involved in the company’s early days. The couple are parents to four children.
The donation to the Oregon Community Foundations (OCF) Arts and Culture Recovery Fund will help arts organizations and individual artists impacted by Covid-19, with an emphasis on communities of color, people with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, and rural, LGBTQ+ and low-income populations.
“We’re humbled and grateful for this incredibly generous contribution to support the arts and culture community across Oregon,” said Jerry Tischleder, OCF program officer for arts and culture. “The Oregon Arts and Culture Recovery Fund has provided significant support to the field so far, but the losses and need related to COVID-19 are staggering. We look forward to continue putting these much-needed funds out into the community.”
OCF was among 286 “high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked,” according to Scott’s blog post announcing the gifts.
Scott announced that she has focused the latest giving on two- and four-year colleges and universities with a record of successfully educating students who come from low-income and marginalized backgrounds and to religious and other nonprofits that are focused on working with organizations of other faiths and ethnic backgrounds to bridge divides between ethnic and religious groups.
Scott, a novelist and philanthropist, holds tens of billions of dollars in Amazon stock. In 2019 she signed the Giving Pledge to give away most of her wealth. The Giving Pledge is a commitment by the world’s richest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back. It was started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 and other signatories such as Star Wars creator George Lucas.
In the spring of 2021 Scott married Dan Jewett, a science teacher at the private school that MacKenzie’s four children have attended.
Together Scott and Jewett spent the first quarter of 2021 identifying and evaluating equity-oriented non-profit teams working in areas that have been neglected. The result was $2,739,000,000 in gifts to 286 high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked.
Scott wrote the following: “Putting large donors at the center of stories on social progress is a distortion of their role. Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change. In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others. Though we still have a lot to learn about how to act on these beliefs without contradicting and subverting them, we can begin by acknowledging that people working to build power from within communities are the agents of change. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower others.”
“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about the change they are creating. This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth. Any wealth is a product of a collective effort that included them. The social structures that inflate wealth present obstacles to them. And despite those obstacles, they are providing solutions that benefit us all.”
Below is a list of the recipients of the donation:
317 Main Community Music Center
ABFE: A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities
Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Fund
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC)
Arts Administrators of Color Network
Arts for Healing and Justice Network
Ashoka Innovators for the Public
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy
AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development)
Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)
Communities Transforming Policing Fund
Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund
Racial Equity in Journalism Fund
Racial Equity in Philanthropy Fund
Racial Equity to Accelerate Change Fund
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
California State University Channel Islands
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Northridge
Center for Asian American Media
Center for Cultural Innovation
Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)
Center for Evaluation Innovation
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Child in Need Institute (CINI)
Chinatown Community Development Center
Chinese for Affirmative Action
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
Constellations Culture Change Fund
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy
Equitable Evaluation Initiative
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
Florida International University
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants COVID-19 Funds
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)
Institute for Transformative Technologies
Interaction Institute for Social Change
International African American Museum
Japanese American National Museum
Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership
Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures
National Center for Family Philanthropy
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
National Council of Nonprofits
National Museum of Mexican Art
Native Americans in Philanthropy
Native Arts & Cultures Foundation
New England Foundation for the Arts
Oregon Arts and Culture Recovery Fund
PEN America Writers’ Emergency Fund
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
San Francisco Community Health Center
Sanku — Project Healthy Children
Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO)
SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action)
Southwest Texas Junior College
The International Association of Blacks in Dance
The Village of Arts and Humanities
Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation
University of California, Merced
University of Illinois Chicago
University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation
Western States Arts Federation
