Scott announces close to $2b donations

MacKenzie Scott sees the $60.4 billion

(NZ$90.7b) she’s accumulated through her ownership of Amazon as ‘‘the product of a collective effort, and of social structures which present opportunities to some people, and obstacles to countless others.’’

Yesterday, a day before her ex-husband, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, is scheduled to testify in front of a congressional committee investigating whether the company has too much power, Scott announced nearly $1.68b in donations to

116 nonprofits, universities and other organisations working on racial, gender and

LGBTQ+ equity, economic mobility, functional democracy, global development, climate change and other purposes. Last year, Scott took the Giving Pledge – a programme begun by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and investor Warren Buffett – in which the world’s wealthy promise to give away at least half of their wealth.