Leadership by Action and What We Should Learn
McKenzie Scott is on a roll.
The former wife of Jeff Bezos, the Founder and Creator of Amazon, has been on a giving spending spree to charities and nonprofits in the United States and around the world. Just recently another $150 million was announced to have been given out by this amazing philanthropist.
There are two things about her giving that I love and that should be highlighted, beyond just the amazing generosity. The first is that she doesn’t put many restrictions on the gifts. Over the course of my career, it’s become harder and harder to get people to give larger sums of money without it being restricted or designated to certain campaigns, programs, or projects. I can understand why, but sometimes an organization needs money to “invest “in the newest or latest opportunity to serve the community. McKenzie Scott wants the organizations to make their own decisions about how they can best use it.
The second is that she is becoming what I call a “submarine philanthropist.” She’s running silent and deep because she wants very little notoriety. In 2020 and 2021, McKenzie Scott gave away immense amounts of money. She quietly announced it, but it received a great deal of attention very quickly. She later said that she regretted making any announcement at all because it took attention away from where the money was going and the great work being done at a local level. Now that’s quite a statement. She took a lot of heat, for some unknown and strange reasons, because some felt as if she should be required to tell people where she gave her money. I couldn’t disagree more with the pundits. It’s her money, she can give it where she wants, she doesn’t have to tell us all about it.
I will most likely never have a chance to meet McKenzie Scott. That’s my loss. We need more people in this world like her. Who want to do good, aren’t looking for credit, and want organizations to fill the holes in their community to make the world a better place. That may be the truest definition, the best idealistic view, of a philanthropist.
