YWCA gets $1 million donation
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, provided the funds as part of her $4.2B Giving Pledge
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Thanks to entrepreneur, author, advocate and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, it will be a very merry Christmas for YWCA Ulster County, which received a $1 million donation from her this week.
“I was speechless,” YWCA Ulster County Executive Director Susan Mack said. “It’s such a game-changer for us. It means all the world. We will be able to do so much more and provide so much more for the community.”
The money went into the organization’s account Monday, but it was not until Wednesday
that they could publicly announce it.
“They contacted us about a month ago, but we were not allowed to disclose anything. I did not know who our benefactor was,” said Mack, who revealed the first expenditure is a small Christmas bonus for a staff that has worked throughout the pandemic.
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos, received the biggest divorce settlement ever last year when Bezos paid out $38 billion, plus a 4% stake in the online shopping giant. As part of her dedication to her Giving Pledge, Scott donated approximately $4.2 billion in gifts to 384 organizations over the past four months, including 60 YWCA associations.
The money will help to fund the YWCA’s mission-based work to eliminate racism and empower women, while also answering the needs of essential workers, youths and others impacted by the COVID crisis The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) allowed us to continue to provide services and we did keep our doors open,” Mack noted. “We have a program that serves third through 12thgrade girls. We have our early childhood program, serving six weeks to five years, and we have the Families Now Program, which is funded by the Ulster County Department of Social Services. That provides home visits to families who are in danger of losing custody of their kids. It’s a strength-based parenting and resource program. We never stopped providing services. Some services went remote. Our early childhood program enrollment dropped 25%. We primarily served families of essential workers, but we “Not kept .“knowing going. what 2021 holds, we want to use the funds strategically, but this will also enable us to continue to provide those services. It means that everybody who uses our early childhood programs can go to work. It means that the youth that we serve will have that emotional and social support in addition to learning leadership skills and everything else we typically do.”
Mack knows that the donation substantially “changes the discussion” in the organization’s efforts to aid the community.
“This will enable us to move in new directions to support our community,” Mack said. “YWCA Ulster County is now seeking people with talent and vision to help guide our direction in 2021 and beyond. We want to hear the voices of our community in all its diversity and richness. We are looking for people who know what is happening and people who know how to make things happen as we move toward our 100th year of service. We’re eager to partner up and learn more about what the community needs right now.”
Anyone interested in joining this discussion is asked to contact Mack at smack@ ywcaulstercounty.org.
“We want to do this planning with the community,” she said. “I want to hear what people have to say. I want to hear what piece of the puzzle should the YWCA be filling and piloting. We are not accepting requests for money. We don’t give out money. We don’t do that, but we do serve the women and the girls and their families in the community and that’s the piece of the puzzle we want to fill.”