Three Jacksonville nonprofits received a portion of nearly $4.2 billion bestowed this week to 384 organizations in the U.S. by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
United Way of Northeast Florida received $20 million and Goodwill Industries of North Florida received $10 million. The donations are the largest single gifts in each organization’s history.
The First Coast YMCA also received a grant from Scott but declines to disclose the amount.
Goodwill CEO David Rey told Daily Record News partner WJXT-TV 4 on Dec. 17 it was an unexpected gift.
“It will help us accelerate our mission to remove barriers to employment,” Reys said.
Goodwill operates retail stores and provides job training in 14 counties to people with barriers to employment. Its service area is from Jacksonville to Palm Coast to Gainesville.
“We are humbled by this recognition and the show of confidence Ms. Scott placed in us with this gift – and for raising awareness about the critical issues communities like ours are facing,” said Michelle Braun, president and CEO of United Way of Northeast Florida, in a news release.
“We are honored by the tremendous trust in our organization this generous gift represents,” said Jim Stepnoski, chair of United Way’s board of directors, in the release.
“It underscores our ongoing leadership and strategic approach to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. This donation will enhance our ability to deepen that work. We know community change, especially sustainable change, is not easy and doesn’t happen overnight. But, together – standing alongside our donors, partners, volunteers and staff – we know it’s possible,” Stepnoski said.
Eric Mann, president and CEO of the First Coast YMCA, provided a statement in an email.
“We will be disclosing the amount in the future, but we must do our due diligence to ensure every dollar Ms. Scott donated is used to sustain our mission for years to come. A gift of this magnitude requires careful thought and consideration. We want this donation to make the biggest impact on pressing community needs,” he said.
The announcement from Scott said organizations were chosen for their “strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.”
She said the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact motivated her to make the gifts to nearly 400 nonprofits.
“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling. Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires,” Scott said.
“I asked a team of advisors to help me accelerate my 2020 giving through immediate support to people suffering the economic effects of the crisis,” she said. “They took a data-driven approach to identifying organizations.”
Scott said some of the organizations are filling basic needs: food banks, emergency relief funds, and support services for those most vulnerable.
She said others are addressing long-term systemic inequities that have been deepened by the crisis: debt relief, employment training, credit and financial services for under-resourced communities, education for historically marginalized and underserved people, civil rights advocacy groups, and legal defense funds “that take on institutional discrimination.”
According to bloomberg.com, Scott is the 18th wealthiest person in the world. Her net worth increased in 2020 by $23.6 billion, to $60.7 billion, as Amazon.com Inc. is the primary source of her fortune, Bloomberg said.
The Bezos divorce was finalized in July 2019.