OVERVIEW: Yield Giving is the funding platform for the novelist MacKenzie Scott, who was an earlier contributor to Amazon. Scott’s prolific grantmaking through Yield Giving supports organizations working across a variety of funding areas. Yield’s unifying priority is “organizations working to advance the opportunities of people in underserved communities.”
IP TAKE: MacKenzie Scott has become one of the world’s most active and prolific philanthropists. The majority of her grantmaking is conducted through Yield Giving, a small organization with a lean team. Yield tends to offer unrestricted support, a sign of Scott’s commitment to trust-based philanthropy. Scott and her team at Yield Giving select potential grantees through an internal vetting process, though there was a major Open Call for grant applications in 2024. It’s unclear whether, or how frequently, open calls will continue. Given the extensive nature of Scott’s giving, it is challenging to categorize her work; Inside Philanthropy’s Mike Scutari pointed out that “attempting to put Scott’s giving into buckets is a fool’s errand… her approach can best be described as ‘all of the above.'” That said, Scott has been particularly attuned to social, educational and economic equity causes, and has supported hundreds of organizations working in areas such as housing and homelessness, higher education, career readiness and community development. Scott supports organizations of all sizes, and has been known to give large grants to small organizations. As of 2025, Scott had given over $20 billion to thousands of nonprofits. Yield Giving increasingly leverages impact investments and partnerships with for-profits as part of its larger organizational strategy.
Yield Giving does not accept unsolicited grant proposals and does not include contact information at its website. Yield is only moderately transparent about its past giving. While it includes an easily navigable grants database at its website, not all past grants are included, and the information is updated only “periodically.” Yield consults with its grantees and includes grant information only when grantees choose to publicly disclose the information. Grantseekers hoping to catch the attention of Yield’s vetting team may need to engage in deep networking.
PROFILE: Established in 2022, Yield Giving is the name of MacKenzie Scott’s giving platform. Born in San Francisco, Scott graduated from Princeton University in 1992, where she worked as a research assistant to Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. Scott worked at the investment firm D.E. Shaw on Wall Street, where she met Jeff Bezos, with whom she launched Amazon in 1994. Scott founded Bystander Revolution, an anti-bullying organization, in 2014. She is a Giving Pledge signatory.
Yield Giving’s simple website has become the name and public face through which MacKenzie Scott conducts her extensive philanthropy. Yield Giving does not have clearly defined funding areas. Instead, Scott announces her donations in periodic thematic batches, often paired with a short essay describing her recent giving strategies. Scott will focus for a time on one priority area—racial justice, economic equity, environmental causes, and the arts have been past priorities—before moving on to other areas. Consequently, just because Scott has been giving to one cause does not mean that focus will continue, and, indeed, grantseekers should expect that by the time a giving trend makes itself known to the general public, Scott and Yield Giving may have moved on to another area entirely. The best way to get a sense of Yield Giving’s funding methods and an overview of its gifting areas is to read through Scott’s essays, which are linked on the Yield Giving website.
Grants for Education
Education has been a constant interest of Scott’s since her giving ramped up in 2019, and early donations through Yield Giving show that this will likely continue to be true for some time. She has given to groups working in all areas of education, including STEM education for girls and historically black universities.
Scott is an accomplished novelist, and her debut, The Testing of Luther Albright, won an American Book Award in 2006. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she supports reading and literacy groups, including $20 million to Reading Partners, an early literacy organization.
Grants for Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education has been a funding priority for Yield Giving lately. Nearly half of 2023’s reported grantmaking went to charities focused on early childhood education and early childhood development. Groups that have received at least $1 million in support during the first half of 2023 include Alliance for Early Success, Parent Possible, Neighborhood Villages, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, Early Edge California, Raising Childcare Fund, Parents as Teachers, and Start Early.
Grants for STEM Education
Yield Giving gave $20 million to Per Scholas, which offers tuition-free skills training in computer-based technology areas and provides “access to employer networks to individuals often excluded from tech careers.” Scott also gave to Black Girls CODE early in 2020 with a $3 million donation.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
Scott has donated tens of millions of dollars to higher education organizations, such as the American Indian Graduate Center, Educate Girls, BRAC — Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiatives, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, HBCUs such as Howard University and Morehouse College, as well as Spelman College, Tuskegee University, Norfolk State University, and the United Negro College Fund, among several others. She has also given $30 million to Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, $30 million to Lehman College/CUNY in the Bronx, N.Y., and $15 million to Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles. In early 2022, Scott donated $133.5 million to Communities in Schools to help disadvantaged students. A recent grant spree included $5 million in 2023 to Eye to Eye to support education for neurodiverse youth.
Scott’s emphasis on higher education typically splits funding between organizations that support women, BIPOC, and other underrepresented groups. Future giving may continue this trend.
Grants for Racial Justice, Indigenous Rights, and BIPOC Communities
Much of Yield Giving’s grantmaking is conducted through an equity lens. Grantees range from small grassroots outfits to established organizations that can scale efforts further.
Recent grantees in this space include the Movement for Black Lives, Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC, First Nations Development Institute, the Opportunity Agenda, Indian Land Tenure Foundation, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Additionally, in March 2022, Scott donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity to promote homeownership in Black and minority communities.
In its first year of giving, Yield heavily supported the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Groups that received gifts include Asian American Journalists Association, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS), Asian Law Caucus, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Hmong American Partnership, and Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF).
Yield Giving’s first (and to-date, only) Open Call prioritized applicants working to advance “the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles.” Racial Justice organizations that received awards through this open call include Black Girl Ventures, Initiate Justice, Alaska Institute for Justice, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Native Renewables, ISAIAH, Connected Communities, and The Eagle Academy Foundation.
Grants for Economic Development and Housing
Like the rest of Scott’s giving, funding for economic development and work opportunity occurs through a racial justice and equity lens. Funding for economic development and opportunity ranges from job skills efforts to economic mobility programs — the latter of which are a funding priority in this space. Scott has given over $400 million for economic mobility programs. Grantees range from grassroots efforts to established organizations with a national reach.
Past grantees in this space include the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Oweesta Corporation, Low Income Investment Fund, Enterprise Community Partners, and Capital Impact Partners. Scott has also given $40 million to Local Initiatives Support Corporation to “advance racial and economic justice and [build] a broadly shared prosperity throughout the country,” and $50 million to Undue Medical Debt. In 2023, Yield Giving gave a grant of $10 million to REDF, a “leader in the employment social enterprise field.” Scott also supported Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, Mandela Partners, New Economy Project, Black Girl Ventures, and Colorado Fiscal Institute in the first Open Call.
Grants for Women and Girls
MacKenzie Scott partnered with Melinda French Gates to create Equality Can’t Wait, a $30 million grant contest focused on gender equality. Grantmaking related to women and girls centers on organizations that are predominately women-led and that address the empowerment, safety, legal representation and rights, as well as education, of women and girls. Scott’s support for organizations focused on women and girls has continued unabated since the creation of Yield Giving. In 2023, the platform gave $15 million to the Fistula Foundation for a project that provides surgeries for women in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who have experienced complications from childbirth.
Other past women and girls grantees include Educate Girls, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, National Women’s Law Center, and Commonsense Childbirth, among others. Scott has also given $25 million to the Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity to support its work to advance gender, reproductive, and racial equity, and $275 million for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, including numerous state-based and regional affiliates. Scott gave $84.5 million to Girl Scouts of the USA and 29 of its local branches to help the organization recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
In Yield Giving’s 2024 Open Call, awards went to Taller Salud, Operation Restoration, Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies, Collective Power for Reproductive Justice, Women Helping Women, Women on the Rise GA, Women’s Bean Project, and Connections for Abused Women and their Children.
Grants for Global Development
In keeping with her overall agenda, Scott’s grants for global development prioritize equity, and include broad support for sustainable farming and humanitarian causes. This giving area intersects with several others, so strategy appears murkier here.
Past global development grantees include Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Ushahidi, and One Acre Fund. Yield Giving has given $7 million to Village Enterprise to help end extreme poverty in rural Africa. It has also made gifts to Dandelion Africa, International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, and SEWA Bharat.
Grants for Public Health
Since 2020, Scott’s individual giving in this area has been conducted through an intersectional lens. Her health funding centers on health equality, as well as reproductive health and abortion access. Scott donated $275 million to Planned Parenthood’s national office and 21 regional affiliates in 2022, and $30 million to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Other recent gift recipients include Vecino Health Centers, Urban Health Plan, Connectus Health, Amite County Medical Services, School-Based Health Alliance, Rural Medical Services, and Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Grants for Environment and Climate Change
Scott’s environmental giving is broad and sometimes focuses on climate change mitigation. According to IP’s Michael Kavate, it is challenging to put a “hard number on how many green groups received awards, which underlines the more expansive approach taken by Scott’s team at Yield Giving.” This is because each awardee could “select up to five focus areas from a defined list of dozens,” states Kavate. Related environmental giving intersects with agriculture and water and food security, among other interests. Yield Giving has given roughly $1.1 billion to climate change grantmaking.
Scott’s environmental grantees tend to be local organizations, says Kavate, that “work across traditional philanthropic silos, and address environmental issues as one of several concerns.”
While Scott awarded $125 million to environmental and climate causes in the first half of 2020 alone, her support in this area has cooled recently. Past climate change grantees include Echoing Green, European Climate Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy — Blue Bonds & US Climate Action.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement
Scott’s giving related to civic engagement and democracy-building center on voting rights and lessening the effects of political polarization. While her giving in these areas has lessened, Scott still supports groups working in this space.
Past grantees here include the Center for Election Innovation & Research, Voto Latino Foundation, Voter Engagement Fund, Democracy Works, Voice of the Experienced, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, and Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote. She also supported Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center, Missouri Jobs with Justice, Generation Citizen, and Vote Run Lead in the 2024 Open Call.
Grants for LGBTQ
Related giving focuses on securing and maintaining LBGTQ rights, as well as providing fellowships and community development grants to LGBTQ elders. Scott announced $46 million in total giving to LGBTQ equity groups in July 2020, and her support has continued unabated since.
Past LGBTQ grantees include The Trevor Project, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Fund for Trans Generations, Lambda Legal, Triangle Project, and SAGEUSA. Open Call recipients include OutFront Minnesota, The Wall Las Memorias, Gender Justice, Carolinas CARE Partnership, and Oasis Legal Services.
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
During their marriage, Scott and Jeff Bezos donated $33 million to a scholarship fund for young “dreamers,” immigrants brought to the United States as children. The award supported TheDream.US, a scholarship program that has awarded more than 1,700 immigrants more than $19 million in financial assistance since it launched. The money funds 1,000 college scholarships. Scott has continued her support of TheDream.US. She has also given to support refugees in Ukraine.
Yield Giving’s Open Call recipients included several organizations focused on immigrants and refugees, including Pathways Adult Education & Training, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, The Immigration Project, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Immigration Equality, and Building One Community – The Center for Immigrant Opportunity (B1C).
Grants for Violence Prevention
Intersecting with Scott’s grantmaking for women and girls, as well as protections for the LGBTQ, Black, and AAPI communities, violence prevention work invests in protecting children, such as Thorn. Related violence prevention grantees include Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API-GBV), RAINN, Collective Future Fund, and Futures Without Violence.
Grants for Arts and Culture, and Arts Education
Scott’s giving rolls out in phases, and her June 2021 grant announcement revealed an emphasis on arts and culture organizations with a strong focus on equity and racial justice. Considering her background as a novelist, it is likely that support for the arts, specifically the written word, will continue.
Narrative4, On Being, and StoryCorps are past grantees. Other grantees include Black Ensemble Theater, Oregon Arts and Culture Recovery Fund, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Motown Museum, Apollo Theater, and Ashé Cultural Arts Center.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness, and Community Development
Yield Giving donated $20 million to the Champlain Housing Trust, based in Burlington, VT in 2023, and $10 million to the National Housing Trust. Scott also gave $12 million through Yield Giving to Grounded Solutions Network. She donated $281 million to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, with $256 million split among the 62 local clubs and the remaining $25 million directed to the national office in Atlanta. She has also given to Habitat for Humanity and its regional affiliates—$436 million in total. She gave $38.8 million to Junior Achievement USA and $55 million to the California Community Foundation to support affordable housing in L.A. She has also given $10 million to Homestead Community Land Trust to help build affordable housing. Scott’s giving in this area has been particularly extensive, and this list of grantee partners only scratches the surface. More information about Scott’s giving for housing and homelessness can be found in IP’s special report on this topic.
Grants for Veterans and Military
While support for veterans and military families is not a big funding area for her, Scott gave $20 million for Operation Homefront, which provides financial assistance and other services to military families.
Important Grant Details:
Traditionally, Scott’s giving has taken the form of unrestricted gifts in amounts that range from $500,000 up to over $100 million.
Since 2019, Scott has given at least $20 billion in unrestricted funding to thousands of nonprofits, and Yield Giving gave over $2.15 billion in 2023 alone. The first round of Yield’s Open Call gave $640 million to 361 small nonprofits.
Scott’s giving has fluctuated in terms of transparency. Initially, she announced her grantees through a series of Medium articles; however, since establishing the Yield Giving website and making grants through that platform, she has left it up to her grantees whether or not they want to announce their gifts. A detailed breakdown of much of Scott’s giving is available on her website’s Gifts page.
Yield Giving utilizes two processes for selecting its grantees: self-selection and an open call.
The first is a continuation of the method Scott has used since she began giving in earnest in 2019—”quiet research” coupled with “careful analysis,” all done “privately and anonymously.”
The second is her one-time Open Call, a prize competition conducted in partnership with Lever for Change, the first round of which included an online application and clearly defined criteria for eligibility and selection. As of this writing, it’s unclear when (or even whether) another Open Call will be announced.
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