Why Selected
MacKenzie Scott is honored as The Americas Press Angel of the Month for September 2026 in recognition of a philanthropic practice that has changed expectations for how large scale giving is conducted.
By giving without restrictions and without the administrative burden that usually accompanies grants of this size, Scott has extended real operating freedom to organizations that rarely receive it. Her decision to seek out smaller institutions working in their own communities, rather than concentrating on the largest and best known recipients, has directed substantial resources toward work that had long gone underfunded. The Americas Press recognizes her this month for generosity exercised with unusual trust in the people doing the work.
Biography
MacKenzie Scott is an American novelist and philanthropist who has become one of the most significant private donors of her generation. Born on April 7, 1970, in San Francisco, California, she studied English at Princeton University, where she worked as a research assistant to the novelist Toni Morrison.
Scott was among the first employees of Amazon, which she helped establish in 1994 with her then husband Jeff Bezos, working on early accounting and business operations. She published two novels, The Testing of Luther Albright, which received an American Book Award in 2006, and Traps in 2013.
Following her divorce in 2019, Scott signed the Giving Pledge and committed to giving away the majority of her wealth. Her approach has drawn attention as much for its method as its scale. She has given largely unrestricted gifts, allowing recipient organizations to spend the money as they judge best, and has required little of the reporting and application work that normally accompanies grants of this size. Her teams identify organizations through their own research rather than waiting for proposals.
The recipients have included historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges, food banks, legal aid organizations, housing groups, and health nonprofits, many of them smaller institutions that had not previously attracted major philanthropic funding. In 2024 she launched an open call through Yield Giving that directed further funding to community led organizations across the country.
Official Award Certificate
Award Trophy
