Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s $7 billion in donations helped power a record year for U.S. philanthropy, with overall charitable giving reaching an all-time high of $617.2 billion in 2025.
MacKenzie Scott Led America’s Biggest Philanthropic Gifts
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon.com, Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, accounted for more than one-third of the nation’s largest charitable gifts in 2025, Fortune reported on Thursday.
According to data from Giving USA and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy shared with the publication, Scott donated approximately $7 billion in 2025.
Her contributions represented roughly one-third of the $19.2 billion in megagifts made during the year.
Other major donors included Michael Bloomberg, who gave $4.3 billion, followed by Bill Gates at $3.7 billion, Warren Buffett at $1.34 billion and Susan and Michael Dell, who donated nearly $1 billion.
Record Charitable Giving Tops $617 Billion
The Giving USA report found total charitable giving in the U.S. climbed to a record $617.2 billion in 2025, up 5.7% from the previous year.
The figure includes donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and bequests to U.S. charities.
“It was a positive year for charitable giving, with virtually all categories of recipient organizations achieving solid or better growth at the aggregate level,” Gabe Cooper, vice chair of the Giving USA Foundation and founder and CEO of Virtuous, said in a statement.
Religious organizations received the largest share of donations at $151.58 billion, followed by human services ($99.5 billion), education ($92.01 billion), foundations ($79.05 billion) and public-society benefit organizations ($72.06 billion).
Why Scott Was Missing From A Top Donor List
Despite her outsized giving, Scott did not appear on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual Philanthropy 50 ranking because she and her representatives declined to provide information that would allow the organization to verify all of her contributions.
Scott has consistently avoided public attention surrounding her philanthropy.
Since 2020, she has donated approximately $26.2 billion to thousands of organizations supporting causes including affordable housing, disaster recovery and diversity initiatives, the report added.
Reflecting on her approach to giving in a December essay, Scott wrote, “It is these ripple effects that make imagining the power of any of our own acts of kindness impossible.”
Following her divorce from Bezos, Scott signed the Giving Pledge and has pledged to donate the majority of her fortune. Despite her extensive philanthropy, her net worth remains at $30 billion, according to Forbes, largely due to the appreciation of her Amazon holdings.
Amazon shares have gained 33.48% in the past five years.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo: REDPIXEL.PL / Shutterstock
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