Through a series of historic donations and an extraordinary volume of giving last year, MacKenzie Scott has established herself as one of the planet’s most generous philanthropists.
However, the Chronicle of Philanthropy holds a different view.
Despite donating over $7 billion to more than 120 organizations in the past year via her philanthropic vehicle, Yield Giving, Scott was omitted from the Chronicle‘s ranking of the top 50 donors this year.
Scott’s 2025 giving alone surpassed the lifetime charitable contributions of her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, yet her distinctive approach prevented her recognition on the list. The billionaire philanthropist is famously private and discreet with her donations, avoiding press attention and seldom disclosing details about her gifts.
“MacKenzie Scott is among the notable absences on the Philanthropy 50 list,” the Chronicle stated. “While it is possible she made gifts to her donor-advised funds that would have earned her a spot on the Philanthropy 50, she and her representatives declined to provide such information to the Chronicle.”
Contacting Yield Giving is virtually impossible (Fortune has tried and failed countless times to obtain further information on past donations). Consequently, verifying contributions for a list like the Chronicle‘s was not feasible. Nevertheless, Scott has been featured on other prominent donor lists, such as Forbes, which commended her for the rapid pace of her giving and the proportion of her net worth she has donated (at least 40%).
Since 2020, Scott has given away $26 billion. In contrast, Forbes estimates that Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, have donated approximately $4.7 billion to charity over their lifetimes. That figure is roughly one-fifth of Scott’s total giving since her 2019 divorce from Bezos, when she received about 4% of Amazon stock, valued at around $36 billion to $38 billion at that time. Scott’s current net worth of $38.9 billion continues to be supported by the consistently rising value of Amazon shares.
“Scott awarded grants totaling about $7 billion to at least 120 charities last year through her Yield Giving fund, but she continues to decline to provide details about how much money she is funneling into the grant maker,” the Chronicle added.
Nonetheless, some observers consider the Chronicle‘s decision to exclude her peculiar.
“I find it odd that MacKenzie Scott isn’t on this list,” said Hans Peter Schmitz, the Bob and Carol Mattocks distinguished professor in nonprofit leadership at North Carolina State University, to The Conversation. “She says she gave $7.1 billion in 2025. If she had met the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s criteria, that would have landed her in first place by far.”
Schmitz acknowledges, however, that the Chronicle‘s methodology disqualified Scott because she has “never provided sufficient information about her generosity since becoming a major donor on her own, following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.”
“And that leaves her off the list year after year,” Schmitz said.
How MacKenzie Scott makes donations
While Scott is arguably among the world’s most generous philanthropists, she is also its most enigmatic—to the point where some recipients initially believed the donation offers were spam emails. This stems from Yield Giving’s practice of proactively reaching out to organizations, rather than fielding applications. Despite this, sources indicate her process for identifying recipients is rigorous.
A defining feature of Scott’s approach is providing unrestricted gifts, allowing organizations to allocate funds as they deem best. This follows a comprehensive vetting process, explained Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Scott donated $15 million to the veteran-focused nonprofit in 2022 and a further $20 million in the fall of 2025. The initial $15 million gift was the largest in the organization’s history since its founding in 2006—the same year its namesake, military reporter Bob Woodruff, was gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
Dougherty noted that the due diligence required sharing documents like the organization’s strategic plan, audited financial statements, business plans, organizational chart, and grant-making procedures. After the donation was finalized, however, Yield Giving adopted a very hands-off stance, she added.
“Unlike traditional funding processes that often involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements, her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,” Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, told Fortune in late 2024 after receiving a $30 million gift from Scott.
Scott’s tendency to avoid fanfare around her donations and grant recipients broad discretion aligns with her overarching philanthropic belief: she views herself as just one part of a larger cycle of generosity, aiming to inspire others as she has been inspired.
“[The] dollar total [I’ve donated] will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year,” Scott wrote in a December 2025 essay. “It is these ripple effects that make imagining the power of any of our own acts of kindness impossible.”
Indeed, she reflects on the kindness she has received from others each time she makes a gift. This includes free dental work from a local dentist during college when she was resorting to denture glue, and a $1,000 loan from her college roommate that allowed her to continue at Princeton University during her sophomore year.
“The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated, often on the basis that it is not financially self-sustaining, or that some of its benefits are hard to track,” Scott wrote. “But what if these imagined liabilities are actually assets?”