The super-rich are trying new approaches to philanthropy

The super-rich are trying new approaches to philanthropy


A NUDGE is not always enough to force change within an industry. Sometimes a series of forceful shoves is required. In the rarified world of Western philanthropy, the shoves began in 2020. The covid-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice across America that summer and the outflow of refugees from Ukraine starting in early 2022 created a new urgency around charitable giving and revealed failings in how it worked. Donors began to consider how they could disburse money faster and with more impact.

Just as the storm of global events was raging, a poster child for the new movement emerged. MacKenzie Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon when she and its founder, Jeff Bezos, divorced in 2019. It was worth $38bn. In the same year she announced that she would give the money away “until the safe is empty”. As global problems spread in 2020, Ms Scott started handing out big grants, to organisations in America and across the world, with no strings attached. Without making any big declaration or setting up a charitable foundation, the quiet billionaire has since shelled out $16.5bn. For comparison, Chuck Feeney, an American duty-free tycoon who was one of the most generous philanthropists of recent times, had given out $8bn by the time of his death in October. Andrew Carnegie, a 19th-century industrialist, gave away $350m, worth $6.2bn today.



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