Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s career is booming. In the past few weeks alone, she has donated millions of dollars to DEI and disaster relief causes.
On Sunday, Howard University announced that Scott, Estimated value: $35.6 billiondonated $80 million to historically black schools.
As is typical with Scott, the gift is unrestricted, meaning the university can use the resources however it chooses. Of the $80 million, $63 million will be donated to Howard University and $17 million will be donated to the school’s medical school. It is one of the largest single donations in Howard’s 158-year history.
“This historic investment will not only help maintain our current momentum, it will also help support necessary student aid, advance infrastructure improvements and build reserve funds to further sustain operational continuity, student success, academic excellence and research innovation,” Howard Interim Chancellor and Chancellor Emeritus Wayne AI Frederick said in a statement. statement.
Howard University said the gift comes at a good time, as the federal government shutdown has delayed the school’s receipt of annual federal funding to support student success, academic programming, research and operations at the university and Howard University Hospital.
The Department of Education has stopped disbursing new financial aid due to the school closures that began on October 1, as nearly 95% of non-student aid staff were furloughed, leaving only essential staff to continue working.
Key programs like the HBCU Capital Financing Program, which provides subsidized loans for renovations and construction, remain on hold. This is particularly unfortunate timing considering the Department of Education $495 million increase announced in September FY 2025 HBCUs and Tribal-Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs).
But at the same time, education experts said the action would be difficult to reconcile with Trump administration policies. Want to dismantle the Department of Energy.
Mike Hoa Nguyen, an associate professor of education at UCLA, said recently: “If (the Trump administration) really… cared about HBCUs and tribal colleges, you wouldn’t see such a massive attack on other sectors of higher education.” Tell American Prospects.
MacKenzie Scott’s Dedication to DEI
Scott’s gift to Howard builds on other recent gifts DEI-focused giving. She donated $42 million to 10,000 Degrees, a Bay Area nonprofit that works to expand college access for low-income and mostly non-white students, along with other eight-figure commitments to Native student scholars and HBCU endowments through the United Negro College Fund.unicef).
In September, she donated $70 million to UNCF as part of a collective endowment campaign to support 37 HBCUs, a strategy designed to increase revenue streams and close historical wealth and funding gaps.
In October, the African American Heritage Action Fund announced Scott makes $40 million gift— is double her previous donation to the organization in 2021 and represents 20% of the organization’s fundraising to date.
However, Scott emphasized that although the amount was high, it did not fully represent the extent of its impact.
“When my next round of gifts is posted to my online database, the total amount may be reported in the news,” she wrote in an Oct. 15 post. prose on the website of her organization, Yield Giving. “But any amount is a tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care shared with the world this year.
“The potential for peaceful, non-transactional contributions has long been underestimated, often because it is not economically self-sustaining or some of its benefits are difficult to track,” she continued. “But what if these imaginary liabilities are actually assets?”