By Ashanti Lee Seabron
(DETROIT) On Tuesday, six Michigan nonprofits were recipients of a $2.6 billion donation to 286 organizations from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, The Detroit News reports.
Over the past two years, Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated billions of dollars to nonprofits across the globe.
In the newest round of donations, the following six Michigan nonprofits found themselves as recipients:
- ACCESS
- Allied Media Projects
- Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
- Mosaic Youth Theatre
- Motown Museum
- Sphinx Organization
Scott announced the donations in a post on Medium.com on Tuesday.
She's pledged to give away her wealth while she's alive, said she is attempting to give away "a fortune that was enabled by systems that need change."
In her announcement, Scott went on to discuss what goals the donations are designed to accomplish.
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.
Scott's Tuesday donations aren't the first time she's given to Michigan nonprofits.
In December of last year, she donated more than $40 million to the following state nonprofits:
- Easterseals Michigan
- Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
- Forgotten Harvest
- Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids
- Goodwill Northern Michigan
- Invest Detroit
- United Way for Southeastern Michigan
- YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit
- YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit