MacKenzie Scott – Why Did She Just Sell 1/4 of Her Stake in Amazon demystifies philanthropy and points charitable leaders to a online resource that celebrates a little known fact that “BillionairesAre People Too!”
I’ll answer the question about MacKenzie Scott’s latest move shortly. Here’s the better question. Are you in the charitable C-Suite? If you are, when’s the last time you visited THE GIVING PLEDGE? (That’s where you’ll find out why MacKenzie turned her stock shares into cash.) If you’re serious about nonprofit financial capacity-building become a vociferous student of this resource. It reveals the way philanthropists think. I encourage you to set aside your cynicism, read what donors have to say, and take them at their word.
Scott, 53, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, just sold one-quarter of her stake in Amazon according Bloomberg Finance. Her share sale forms about 25% of Scott’s stake in the company and is worth $10.4 billion.
If you’d like to know why sold her stock, the answer is simple. SHE’S GOING TO GIVE IT AWAY. How do I know? She said so at the THE GIVING PLEDGE.
This latest offload means that MacKenzie has sold about half of her shares in Amazon, and her current holdings ranks her as the 35th richest person in the world.
NANOE co-founder, Jimmy LaRose points out, “Scott would be a lot higher up the rich list if it were not for her charitable contributions.”
“MacKenzie Scott would be a lot higher up the rich list
if it were not for her charitable contributions” ~ Jimmy LaRose
Scott indicated (on the Giving Pledge website) that she donated $2.1 billion to 360 organizations in 2023, bringing her donations to more than $16 billion since she signed the pledge.
THE GIVING PLEDGE is a non-binding promise that billionaires make to DONATE THE MAJORITY OF THIER WEALTH IN THEIR OWN LIFETIME.
Here’s the message MacKenzie shared when she officially made THE PLEDGE:
Thinking about the Giving Pledge, my mind kept searching its folds for a passage I once read about writing, something about not saving our best ideas for later chapters, about using them now.
I found it this morning on a shelf of my books from college, toward the end of Annie Dillard’sThe Writing Life. It was underlined and starred like all of the words that have inspired me most over the years, words that felt true in context, and also true in life:
“Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book… The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better… Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”
I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give. No drive has more positive ripple effects than the desire to be of service. There are lots of resources each of us can pull from our safes to share with others — time, attention, knowledge, patience, creativity, talent, effort, humor, compassion. And sure enough, something greater rises up every time we give: the easy breathing of a friend we sit with when we had other plans, the relief on our child’s face when we share the story of our own mistake, laughter at the well-timed joke we tell to someone who is crying, the excitement of the kids in the school we send books to, the safety of the families who sleep in the shelters we fund. These immediate results are only the beginning. Their value keeps multiplying and spreading in ways we may never know.
We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.
When MacKenzie first took the pledge five years ago I took her at her word. She didn’t disappoint. She’s distributed $16 billion to organizations JUST LIKE YOURS and she’s about to spend another 10.
Why? She’s a donor who keeps her word.
About the Author:
Jimmy LaRose is the author ofRE-IMAGINING PHILANTHROPY: Charities Need Your Mind More Than Your Money,which has been named one of the 100 best philanthropy books of all time.
MacKenzie Scott – Why Did She Just Sell 1/4 of Her Stake in Amazon? was first posted at INSIDE CHARITY
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