The Trevor Project, known for its hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, received $45 million from billionaire and author MacKenzie Scott at the end of 2025, the organization said Monday.
The gift is the largest in the organization’s history but also a major boon following years of management turmoil, layoffs and the loss of significant federal funding over the summer.
“I literally could not believe it and it took some time. I actually gasped,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, when they were notified of Scott’s gift.
She apparently gave $7.1 billion to nonprofits last year. I think we may have found the only decent billionaire, though she probably won’t stay one for longer than a decade at this rate.
Just beware that rich people use publicity of their charitable work as good-washing (is that a term?) for their other activities. Bill Gates is a good example of that behaviour.
Not that I think that Mackenzie Scott is doing this, since she seems to have never really been in a position of power to show her evil side (if she has one).
Oh for sure. Idk if good washing is a term, but it should be. The only reasons I kinda buy it for her are that
- she wasn’t actually responsible for the evil that stole the money, she just took a bunch of it from Jeff
- The amount that she’s giving is a pretty hefty portion of her worth
- It’s being done in pretty much the lowest key way possible without being completely anonymous, which I’m not knowledgeable enough about that system to know how possible full anonymity would be.
All in all, her motives don’t seem hugely self serving.
I’m not knowledgeable enough about that system to know how possible full anonymity would be.
I think you do the transfer through a law firm. A nonprofit I’ve worked with got a sizeable anonymous donation some years back (kilobucks though, not megabucks). It was announced as having come from a single donor. I don’t know if the nonprofit’s higher ups were told the donor’s identity, but it was certainly no big deal for them to not publicize it.
If anyone is interested in reading about the only good billionaire, check out Chuck Feeney’s story.
She still has dozens of billions. That amount of money can make more money in a year than everyone reading this comment will make in their lifetime combined.
She’s still a bad billionaire. The only way she stops being a bad billionaire is to stop being a billionaire.
Think of it this way though, she reduced Bezos net worth by more than any taxes, government, or humanitarian aid did. Searches say by about 25% at the time.
She reduced the worth of one billionaire and is attempting to funnel as much of that as she can into humanitarian and charitable efforts.
If she burned it, it would help no one. If she gave it all to governments, 99.99% would fund weapons, war, and waste, maybe 0.01% towards social programs.
She’s not buying yachts or islands. She’s doing what we as normal people would hope we would do if we had obscene amounts of money dumped in our laps.
The alternative is her ex-husband would still have it and he’d spend $45M on a party. And Trevor Project would have none of it.
On a side note, slightly related, I’m wondering what happens when Elmo kicks it and all his relatives’, baby mama’s, and children’s lawyers come out of the woodwork to contest and divvy up that fortune.
The lawyers and business associates will tie it up. I don’t really recall any details, but it’ll be like when Howard Hughes died.
She inherited her wealth through divorce and has given away a good portion of it. She’s working toward being a millionaire, which is the best kind of billionaire. It takes time and what she’s done with her money has been good.
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Yeah, sure, but that doesn’t make all billionaires equally bad. If you’re going to set up the guillotines, it’s worth knowing who the worst are.
Agreed. This is the “both sides” argument
Truly insufferable.
Wow! I don’t understand why isn’t she hoarding the money. Must be something wrong with her. Living in a capitalistic economy and not hoarding wealth.
Wow amazing
