SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Billionaire philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott announced Tuesday she's giving $640 million to 361 small nonprofits who responded to an open call for applications — and three of those organizations are in Sacramento.
Scott donated $5 million across three local nonprofits and listed the contributions on her online database, Yield Giving:
- Shine Together, which aims to give young moms resources they need to thrive as students and parents.
- California Native Vote Project, which tries to engage Native American communities statewide to build political power through voter engagement.
- Sacramento LGBT Community Center, which works to create a region where all LGBTQ+ people thrive by supporting health and wellness and advocating for equity and justice.
Shine Together and the California Native Vote Project received $2 million each while the Sacramento LGBT Community Center received $1 million.
Some 6,353 nonprofits applied to the $1 million grants when applications opened. The 279 nonprofits that received top scores from an external review panel were awarded $2 million, while 82 organizations in a second tier received $1 million each.
Niki Singleton, Shine Together’s regional director in Sacramento, said the funds will help propel the organization toward its mission.
“The Sacramento team, the newest region, is excited and plans to continue to grow and expand its reach to more young families in the Sacramento Valley,” Singleton said. “With this generous gift, we will be able to further develop our strategic plan, increase visibility and leverage this investment to expand our reach and depth, assisting young mothers and their children.”
Chrissie Castro, California Native Vote Project's executive director, said the organization is humbled and grateful for being selected to receive the $2 million gift.
"This will allow us to deepen and strengthen our work towards justice for Native American peoples throughout California, and to deepen our youth organizing, Native educational justice and voter engagement work in Sacrament," Castro said.
Priya Kumar, Sacramento LGBT Community Center spokeswoman, said the center is thrilled to have been selected from thousands of nationwide applicants.
“It is a huge honor, and we are incredibly grateful both to MacKenzie Scott/Yield Giving and to our community, donors, and partners who have supported us for 46 years,” Kumar wrote in a statement. “This award is a reflection of the hard work the Sacramento LGBT Community Center is doing to create a region where all LGBTQ+ people can thrive.”
Kumar said the funds will be used to protect access to LGBTQ+ youth housing, sexual and mental health services and youth programming, and invested in arts and cultural programming, advocacy work, staffing and volunteers.
In 2023, the East Bay Asian Youth Center, which operates in Oakland and Sacramento, received $3 million from Scott. In 2022, Scott donated $4.5 million to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento.
Scott’s donations process
Competitions like Scott's open call can help organizations who do not have connections with a specific funder get considered, said Renee Karibi-Whyte, senior vice president for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Megan Peterson, executive director of the Minnesota-based nonprofit, Gender Justice, said the application was a rare opportunity to get noticed by Scott.
“Having seen the types of work that she has supported in the past, we did feel like, ‘Oh, if only she knew that we were out here racking up wins,’” Peterson said.
Gender Justice has recently won lawsuits regarding access to emergency contraception and the rights of transgender youth to play sports. It plans to use the funds to expand its work into North Dakota.
Peterson said the funds must be used for tax exempt purposes but otherwise come with no restrictions or reporting requirements.
“I think (Scott’s) really helping to set a new path for philanthropy broadly, which is with that philosophy of: Find people doing good work and give them resources and then get out of the way,” Peterson said. “I am grateful for not just the support individually, but the way in which I think she is having an impact on philanthropy broadly.”
The open call asked for applications from nonprofits who are community-led with missions “to advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means,” Yield Giving said on its website. Only nonprofits with annual budgets between $1 and $5 million were eligible to apply.
Scott has given away $16.5 billion from the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019. Initially, she publicized the gifts in online blog posts, sometimes naming the organizations and sometimes not.
In an essay reflecting on the website, she wrote, “Information from other people – other givers, my team, the nonprofit teams I’ve been giving to – has been enormously helpful to me. If more information about these gifts can be helpful to anyone, I want to share it.”
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