MacKenzie Scott Donates $70 Million to UNCF to Support HBCUs

The UNCF, the country’s largest private scholarship provider for minority students, is trying to raise $1 billion to support all 37 of its historically Black colleges and universities. Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has contributed $70 million to the UNCF.

The donation is among the first to be made public in 2025 and one of Scott’s biggest single donations to date. Scott, who is renowned for being extremely private, only talks about her donations on her website and waits for the beneficiaries to authenticate them.

According to a statement released by the nonprofit’s president and CEO, Dr. Michael L. Lomax, “This extraordinary gift is a powerful vote of confidence in HBCUs and in the work of UNCF.” “It provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our member institutions to build permanent assets that will support students and campuses for decades to come.”

According to Lomax, Scott’s donation will go toward UNCF’s pooled endowment, which intends to create a $370 million fund, with $10 million going to each HBCU that is a member of UNCF. The HBCUs will get a portion of that invested capital, which is expected to provide a 4% annual payout, to assist stabilize their budgets. According to the UNCF, HBCU endowments lag behind non-HBCU endowments by 70%, making increasing them a top goal.

The larger $1 billion fundraising campaign aims to assist HBCUs in resolving the financing gap they experience in comparison to other universities and institutions. According to a 2023 study by the nonprofit organization ABFE, which promotes investments in Black communities, and the philanthropic research agency Candid, the eight Ivy League schools earned $5.5 billion from the 1,000 top U.S. foundations in 2019, while the 99 HBCUs received $45 million.

HBCUs have been one of Scott’s favorite grantees ever since she took the Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to donate more than half her fortune. Scott is a novelist who got the majority of her income after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In 2020, she donated $10 million to UNCF.

Scott stated in 2020 that her donation choices were “driven by a deep belief in the value different backgrounds bring to problem-solving on any issue,” even though she hasn’t directly addressed HBCU donations.

Since recognizing $2 billion in gifts in 2024, raising her total to $19.2 billion, Scott has not made any disclosures regarding her charitable contributions. Scott currently has a net worth of almost $34 billion, according to Forbes.

According to Phil Buchanan, president of The Center for Effective Philanthropy, which conducted a three-year study on Scott’s giving, her unusual donations, which are significantly larger than most foundations give at one time and have no restrictions on when or what they can be used for, financially strengthened the nonprofits that received them.

“We didn’t see the fears people predicted come to pass,” Buchanan added, revealing that Scott had given a one-time $10 million contribution to The Center for Effective Philanthropy.