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Philanthropy
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MacKenzie Scott Donates Millions More to 31 ‘Overlooked’ Colleges

By  Eric Kelderman
June 15, 2021
MacKenzie Scott
Evan Agostini, Invision, AP
MacKenzie Scott

Overwhelming. Transformational. Game-changer. Those were some of the words used in early reactions from higher-education officials and nonprofit leaders who received a portion of the $2.74 billion in gifts that were announced on Tuesday by the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

“It’s not often that we get this kind of news,” said Ellen Treanor, senior vice president for strategic communication at California State University at Fullerton, which received $40 million.

In fact, it is the only time that Fullerton has gotten this kind of news. Treanor said the gift is the largest ever made to the university, which was among the 31 colleges that received donations from Scott, who used to be married to the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In addition to those institutions, a half-dozen nonprofit organizations that support postsecondary education received gifts, all dedicated to fostering the success of minority students.

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Overwhelming. Transformational. Game-changer. Those were some of the words used in early reactions from higher-education officials and nonprofit leaders who received a portion of the $2.74 billion in gifts that were announced on Tuesday by the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

“It’s not often that we get this kind of news,” said Ellen Treanor, senior vice president for strategic communication at California State University at Fullerton, which received $40 million.

In fact, it is the only time that Fullerton has gotten this kind of news. Treanor said the gift is the largest ever made to the university, which was among the 31 colleges that received donations from Scott, who used to be married to the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In addition to those institutions, a half-dozen nonprofit organizations that support postsecondary education received gifts, all dedicated to fostering the success of minority students.

“Higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity,” Scott wrote in a blog post announcing the gifts, “so we looked for two- and four-year institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved.” In 2020, Scott gave away a total of more than $5.7 billion to 512 organizations, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and was the second-largest individual donor in the nation, behind her former husband.

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Like many of the colleges on the list of the latest recipients, Fullerton serves a diverse student body. Among the nearly 35,000 undergraduates, 44 percent are Hispanic, 22 percent are Asian, and half are from low-income families.

The gifts also went to institutions that are “historically underfunded and overlooked” — in other words, those that typically don’t get a lot of attention, or money, from big-name donors.

Lee College, in Baytown, Tex., received $5 million from Scott, the largest donation in its history, but a drop in the bucket compared with the $1.8 billion that the media mogul Michael R. Bloomberg donated in 2018 to the Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater. (Bloomberg has given Hopkins more than $3 billion in all.) “We are overwhelmed by Ms. Scott’s generosity, and we are thrilled to be recognized for our transformative student-success work,” Lee’s president, Lynda Villanueva, said in a news release.

Significantly, for the recipients, the money comes with no strings attached. “What do we think they might do with more cash on hand than they expected?” Scott wrote. “Buy needed supplies. Find new creative ways to help. Hire a few extra team members they know they can pay for the next five years. Buy chairs for them. Stop having to work every weekend. Get some sleep.”

Sarita E. Brown, president and co-founder of Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Latino/a students succeed in college, said it would use its $10-million gift to further its “Seal of Excelencia” certification program, which provides a framework to improve academic outcomes for students.

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“It’s about the most powerful donation,” Brown said, “a nonprofit organization can get.”

Twenty institutions have publicly announced the amounts they received from Scott, totaling $653 million. They are listed here, along with colleges that have not disclosed their gifts:

  • Amarillo College — $15 million
  • Brazosport College — $3 million
  • Broward College — $30 million
  • California State Polytechnic University at Pomona — $40 million
  • California State University-Channel Islands — $15 million
  • California State University at Fullerton — $40 million
  • California State University at Northridge — $40 million
  • Chaffey College — $25 million
  • College of the Desert — $18 million
  • El Paso Community College
  • Florida International University — $40 million
  • Harper College — $18 million
  • Hostos Community College of City University of New York — $15 million
  • Kennedy-King College of City Colleges of Chicago — $5 million
  • Lee College — $5 million
  • Long Beach City College — $30 million
  • Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College — $20 million
  • Odessa College — $7 million
  • Pasadena City College — $30 million
  • Porterville College — $7 million
  • Renton Technical College — $5 million
  • San Antonio College — $15 million
  • San Jacinto Community College — $30 million
  • Santa Barbara City College — $20 million
  • Southwest Texas Junior College
  • University of California at Merced — $20 million
  • University of Central Florida — $40 million
  • University of Illinois at Chicago — $40 million
  • University of Texas at San Antonio — $40 million
  • University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley — $40 million
  • West Hills College at Lemoore
Update (June 15, 2021, 5:07 p.m.): A list of colleges that are among the recipients of gifts has been appended to the article. (Last updated: 6/16/2021, 1:45 p.m.)
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Diversity, Equity, & InclusionFinance & Operations
Eric Kelderman
Eric Kelderman covers issues of power, politics, and purse strings in higher education. You can email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com, or find him on Twitter @etkeld.
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