- Elon Musk slammed MacKenzie Scott for her philanthropy, but that hasn’t stopped her from donating.
- Scott more than doubled her planned $250 million donation pledge, upping it to $640 million.
- Musk previously accused Scott of being a “super rich ex-wife” who’s destroying Western civilization.
Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott might have landed in Elon Musk’s crosshairs this month for her philanthropic gift-giving.
But that hasn’t stopped her from pouring her wealth into charity work. On Tuesday, Scott announced that she would be donating $640 million to 361 organizations.
The award is more than double the $250 million she had initially pledged to give away last year.
Lever for Change, the organization that assisted Scott with her philanthropic gifts, says 279 nonprofits will receive $2 million each while the remaining 82 organizations will get $1 million each.
According to Lever for Change, the open call for applications “initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each.” But in light of “the incredible work of these organizations, as judged by their peers and external panelists, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount,” per Lever for Change.
Scott’s hefty donation comes weeks after Musk slammed her charity work.
“‘Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse’ should filed be listed among ‘Reasons that Western Civilization died,'” Musk said in a now-deleted X post on March 6.
Musk did not elaborate on why he had singled out Scott, but he’s been a harsh critic of efforts to promote corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it,” Musk said in an X post in January.
That wasn’t the first time Musk ripped Scott for donating billions to charity. Back in May 2022, Musk claimed that his companies were being sidelined by the Democratic Party because Scott had donated to “PACs posing as charities.“
“It’s safe to say that MacKenzie [ahem] Scott is not exactly a big fan of her ex-husband. Unfortunately, a lot of others are getting caught in the crossfire,” Musk said in an X post on May 31, 2022.
To be sure, Scott has been generous with her donations, and Musk’s opinion about how she handles her money likely mattered little in the giving process.
Scott said in a post on her website, Yield Giving, that the nonprofits were selected “from a pool of over 6,000 applicants.” The 361 organizations, she wrote, were “elevated by peer organizations and a round-2 evaluation panel” and “are vital agents of change.”
Scott’s donations this year also include support for women’s health and minority groups. She’s donating to the ACLU of Alabama, the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, and the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies, to name a few.
“This open call award helps us take our fight for justice and equity to the next level, continuing our work to dismantle the legal, structural, and cultural barriers that contribute to gender inequity,” Megan Peterson, executive director for the nonprofit advocacy group Gender Justice, said of Scott’s donation. Peterson’s organization will receive $2 million from Scott.
And unlike most philanthropists, who tie specific reporting requirements to their funding, Scott stands out with her no-strings-attached approach toward her donations.
In 2022, Scott said in a blog post on Medium that she’d donated nearly $2 billion to “343 organizations supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities.”
Scott’s donations in 2022 included $275 million to Planned Parenthood and $15 million to the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
Representatives for Scott at Lever for Change as well as Musk did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
