United Way of the Midlands receives a $10 million donation from MacKenzie Scott

MacKenzie Scott, a philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $10 million to United Way of the Midlands, according to a news release from the local nonprofit.

Tuesday, Scott announced on Medium, an online publishing platform, that she has donated almost $4.2 billion to 384 different charities in the past four months.

The process of choosing United Way of the Midlands and the other charities was arduous, according to Scott’s post.

“To select these 384,” Scott said, “the team sought suggestions and perspective from hundreds of field experts, funders, and non-profit leaders and volunteers with decades of experience. We leveraged this collective knowledge base in a collaboration that included hundreds of emails and phone interviews, and thousands of pages of data analysis on community needs, program outcomes, and each non-profit’s capacity to absorb and make effective use of funding.”

United Way of the Midlands served more than 63,000 Midlands residents last year, including 15,000 individuals who were helped by its COVID-19 Response Fund, according to the release.

Scott’s donation is the largest donation from an individual in the organization’s 95-year-history.

United Way works to fight homelessness, enhance education and provide healthcare to those who need it. Its programs include WellPartners Dental and Eye Clinics, Resilient Richland and the Midlands Reading Consortium.

“I am extremely grateful that Ms. Scott has invested such a generous gift in United Way of the Midlands,” said Sara Fawcett, United Way of the Midlands President and CEO. “This is a long-term investment in the Midlands and gives us the ability to greatly expand collaboration and collective impact across the region.”