THE BIG IDEA Fast Times
Our culture puts a great deal of focus on wealth-building, whether in tech, pro sports or celebritydom. But billionaire MacKenzie Scott can’t seem to give away her money fast enough. Her extraordinary largesse and whiplash-inducing pace this past year appear to have given some of her peers a gentle kick in the pants.
In March, Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, announced she had bestowed $3.9 billion upon 465 nonprofits in the previous nine months, bringing her tally of donations to at least $12 billion in just the past two years. Her modus operandi also involves relying on experts to identify organizations that can actually make an impact and then letting those nonprofits run with the money. No strings attached nor provisions for how to spend it.
Hers is a speed and style the philanthropic world is not accustomed to seeing, as traditional means of giving—donating buildings, endowing foundations, leaving money in
