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MacKenzie Scott Donates $70 Million to UNCF for Pooled HBCU Endowment

The unrestricted gift advances a $1 billion campaign to build permanent endowments for 37 private HBCU campuses.

Since divorcing from Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott has donated over $19 billion of her wealth—but this is one of her largest single donations ever.
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9/23

Overview

  • UNCF will place the funds in its Members Pooled Endowment Fund targeting $370 million, or roughly $10 million per member school, with about 4% paid out annually.
  • UNCF’s Michael L. Lomax called the contribution a vote of confidence that enables long-term asset building for students and campuses.
  • The donation, among Scott’s largest, is one of her first publicly disclosed in 2025 and follows a $10 million gift to UNCF in 2020.
  • UNCF leaders say the high-profile support is intended to catalyze additional large gifts to HBCU endowments.
  • The campaign seeks to narrow long-standing funding gaps, as HBCU endowments lag non-HBCUs by about 70% and major foundations heavily favor elite universities, according to Candid and ABFE.