MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon's multibillionaire founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, has donated more than US$4.1 billion in the past four months to food banks and emergency relief funds.
In a Medium blogpost on Tuesday (local time), Scott, 50, said she wanted to "accelerate" her donations this year and provide immediate support to those suffering the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis. In the past four months, she has given away US$4.15 billion to 384 organisations across the US and Puerto Rico - taking her total donations in 2020 to US$6 billion.
"This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling," she wrote in the blogpost, titled 384 Ways to Help.
"Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of colour, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.
"The result over the last four months has been [US]$4,158,500,000 in gifts to 384 organisations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC Some are filling basic needs: food banks, emergency relief funds, and support services for those most vulnerable."
Her post added that donations will also be directed toward "long-term systemic inequities" like debt relief, employment training and legal defense funds.
In July, Scott revealed she had donated US$1.7 billion in the previous year to several causes, including racial equality, LGBTQ rights, public health and climate change. In 2019, she signed the Giving Pledge Initiative in a commitment to give away a significant portion of her fortune to charitable causes following her $38 billion divorce settlement with Bezos, the world's wealthiest person.
Scott, a novelist, was married to Bezos for 26 years. According to Forbes, she is the 21st richest person in the world with a net worth of $56.5 billion. She is currently listed as the third richest woman in the world.
