A new report from the Movement Advancement Project says that MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy has been hugely helpful to LGBTQ+ organizations — not just because of the size of her donations but because of their unrestricted nature. Many individuals and foundations that make grants to charitable groups specify the type of projects the money must go to and require the groups to report how the funds were used. But from 2019 to the spring of 2023, Scott, a billionaire who was once married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has made $14 billion worth of unrestricted gifts. MAP looked at 28 LGBTQ+ or inclusive groups that received grants totaling $163 million from Scott from 2020 to 2022. She donated to seven other organizations in this category, but the figures from them were not available. MAP obtained information from the 28 through a survey in which 18 of them participated, plus public records and other sources for the remaining 10. Compared to the overall group of organizations that received grants from Scott, LGBTQ+ ones were slightly more likely to spend the new money on increasing salaries or benefits, slightly less likely to spend it on professional development for staff, and somewhat less likely to use it to expand existing programs or set up a cash reserve.
