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MacKenzie Scott has made thousands of donations over the past few years, totaling an eye-popping $26 billion. Organizations focused on myriad causes including education, DEI, disaster recovery, and more have often said these gifts are record-breaking or life-changing\u2014and much of it goes back to Scott\u2019s philosophy: trust-based philanthropy.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one gift that wasn\u2019t used as intended, at least according to some stakeholders. In 2021, Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated a record $20 million to Santa Barbara City College (SBCC)\u2014the largest gift in the school\u2019s 112-year history. The gift came at a time when SBCC and U.S. community colleges were facing a \u201cserious enrollment decline\u201d due to the pandemic, according to an SBCC statement from 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gift is an act of incredible generosity and due to its unrestricted nature, a demonstration of tremendous trust in our community\u2019s college,\u201d former SBCC Foundation CEO Geoff Green said in the 2021 statement. \u201cIt reinforces the importance of providing quality higher education that is accessible to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in late January, the SBCC Board of Trustees disclosed that about $10.5 million of that gift had been spent without explicit authorization from either the foundation\u2019s board, college officials, or the trustees themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Board of Trustees has initiated its own investigation into what occurred, consistent with its commitment to sound governance and public trust,\u201d according to a Jan. 30 statement. \u201cThe use of the MacKenzie Scott gift will be on the February 19, 2026, Board of Trustees agenda for an initial discussion and to hear public comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
That gift was supposed to be the kind of feel-good story that has become Scott\u2019s signature: a record donation to a community college that could turbocharge access for low-income students. Instead, the money has become a flashpoint over governance, transparency, and what happens when a \u201cno-strings\u201d philosophy meets a public institution\u2019s accountability rules.<\/p>\n
Still, the funds largely underwrote the college\u2019s Promise Program, which covers tuition, books, and supplies for roughly 1,800 local students each year. The problem was the funding was never approved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About $10.5 million of Scott\u2019s gift was used toward the program from 2021 to 2024, Bobbi Abram, CEO of the SBCC Foundation, told SFGATE<\/em>, and about $13 million of Scott\u2019s gift is left, according to a Board of Trustees statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Abram, who took over the SBCC foundation in 2024, ordered an internal review after spotting accounting discrepancies, but told People <\/em>the gift wasn\u2019t \u201cmisused.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore than 1,800 local students are supported by the Promise each year. This is a nationally recognized program which makes higher education accessible for local families,\u201d Abram told People<\/em>. \u201cUsing some of the Scott gift funds for the Promise was not a \u2018misuse.\u2019 It was entirely consistent with the Foundation\u2019s mission and in the spirit of the donor\u2019s intent.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Abram chalked it up to just an \u201caccounting process failure\u201d and a \u201clack of transparency\u201d and claimed they \u201cnow have it corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the board of trustees launched its own investigation and will have a public discussion on the matter on Thursday.<\/p>\n SBCC didn\u2019t immediately respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment. Scott and her philanthropic foundation, Yield Giving, could not be reached.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott, who is worth an estimated $38.5 billion, has a signature playbook for her donations. She has a no-strings-attached approach, meaning recipients can use the donations however they choose. That\u2019s quite different from how other philanthropic donations are handled; they\u2019re often made for a specific purpose and require more oversight and check-ins from the donor.<\/p>\n \u201cShe practices trust-based philanthropy,\u201d Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, told Fortune<\/em> of Scott, who donated $15 million to the veteran-focused nonprofit organization in 2022, and made a subsequent $20 million donation last fall.<\/p>\n With that initial $15 million gift, the Bob Woodruff Foundation established a three-year plan to invest an additional 20% each year for the past three years in programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a couple things we did not do,\u201d Dougherty explained. \u201cWe did not establish an endowment, we did not hire a bunch of people, we did not buy real estate, open up an office, anything like that. We just increased our grant making.\u201d<\/p>\n That level of trust bestowed by Scott proved a game-changer for the Bob Woodruff Foundation and for thousands of other organizations to which she made donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n To be sure, Scott\u2019s foundation, Yield Giving, has a thorough due diligence process, Dougherty said, including sharing information such as the organization\u2019s strategic plan, audited financials, business plans, organization chart, and grant-making process. But after the donation was received, Scott\u2019s organization was hands-off.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike traditional funding processes that often involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements, her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,\u201d Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, told Fortune<\/em> in late 2024, when her organization received a $30 million gift from Scott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #MacKenzie #Scotts #historic #million #donation #community #college #mired #controversy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MacKenzie Scott has made thous… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[6407,6408,5264,8082,3341,924,3104,7590,13705,372,2352,6240,6239,913,13706,1298,6241],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Scott\u2019s trust-based philanthropic philosophy\u00a0<\/h2>\n