MacKenzie Scott gives $39 million to Junior Achievement USA

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated $38.8 million to Junior Achievement USA and 26 local foundations — the largest gift in the national educational nonprofit’s 103-year history. announced on Tuesday.

Like all of Scott’s $12 billion in donations since 2019Her gift to Junior Achievement USA is unlimited, meaning a Colorado-based nonprofit that prepares students for adulthood by teaching them financial literacy, career skills and business ownership training, can use the funds for any project it wants.

Jack E. Kosakowski, President and CEO of Junior Achievement USA, said the gift was “a great, pleasant surprise” and lifted morale throughout the organization. Junior Achievement USA will receive $10 million, while 26 local Junior Achievement activities will split $28.8 million based on assessment by Scott and her team.

It is unclear whether the gift to Junior Achievement marks a new round of donations from Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett. The author and philanthropist does not comment on her donations beyond her Medium blog, which hasn’t been updated since March. Her giveaways are only announced if and when the groups receive them. Contribution confirmation.

Kosakowski said he was delighted by Scott’s unrestricted gift because it could be used to modernize the corporation’s technology infrastructure, a need that is rarely high on most priority lists. Donors. The $10 million will also help expand the nonprofit’s digital education offerings and add volunteers in currently underserved areas.

“We support all of our 102 local offices across the country, so this will really help us streamline our operations,” Kosakowski told The Associated Press. “Ultimately, as we become more efficient, that will allow us to use more of our traditional funding dollars to directly serve the young people we work with.”

Scott, now worth about $42 billion according to Forbes, signed the Giving Pledge, a promise from many billionaires to give away more than half of their fortune. As part of her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was then the richest man in the world, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon.

Since then, she has worked diligently to make unlimited donations quickly. Initially, Scott focused on funding that would create more racial and gender equality, with substantial donations to many HBCUs and groups like the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which received 275 million dollars from her in March.

However, in recent donations, Scott has also picked out established nonprofits with a focus on their communities – including Habitat for Humanity and The Boys & Girls Clubs of America. “Communities that get in the habit of removing obstacles for different subgroups of people tend to be better for everyone,” she writes in March blog post.

And now, she’s supporting Junior Achievement, which educates more than 12.5 million students in 115 countries around the world.

“It’s given to our board, to our staff, just a huge amount of confidence,” said Kosakowski. “People are seeing and recognizing what we do to help these young people prepare for success in life.”