Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gives $3.2M to Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County
Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County will have $3.2 million more to put behind its mission of enabling local youth thanks to a donation from MacKenzie Scott, the organization announced Thursday.
Scott, the novelist and philanthropist who was formerly married to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, announced in 2019 that she would begin to redistribute a large amount of her wealth to charitable causes. Since then, the billionaire and world’s 23rd richest person has gifted about $9.2 billion of her money to charity.
Scott’s latest charity of choice is Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Her donation of $281 million to the organization was announced Thursday, and it marked the largest gift to the nonprofit after-school program since its inception in 1860.
$25 million is going to the organization’s national headquarters in Atlanta, and the rest is being distributed among 62 local Boys & Girls Clubs located nationwide, philanthropy.com reports.
Included in that distribution are several clubs in Florida, including Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County and Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade.
“The impact of this investment is powerful,” Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County president Dawn Stanhope said in a news release. “With so many families struggling to ensure that their children have the resources necessary to recover from multiple effects of the pandemic, this gift expands our ability to help kids, families and our community close the opportunity gap.”
Leadership of the local club, which has six locations in Manatee County, says it plans to use the gift to enhance access to “high quality programs.”
After-school programs currently offered locally include homework help, STEM learning, sports and recreation, fine arts and leadership coaching.
Bayshore High School senior Isabel Frank, who participated in the club for nine years, was recently named Youth of the Year for Manatee County, and spoke highly of the programs.
“They give us experiences that help us focus on our future,” Isabel said in a news release. “We are given insights that help us change our point of view, solidify our worldview and see others and their viewpoints.”
In Miami-Dade, leadership of the local organization plan to use the $4.8 million that they received towards a renovation project planned for the Northwest Club location. The rebuild will create “a state-of-the-art facility for generations to come,” a news release said.
The new 25,000-square-foot club will include a learning center, a STEM and computer lab, a teen center, recreational areas, and refurbishment existing fields and its gym, the organization says.
Scott previously said that the donations are paid in full upon acceptance and come without any stipulations about how the money is spent. She has been changing the world of philanthropy, giving away $8.6 billion in 12 months, much of it to small charities and without limitations.
Other local organizations in Manatee County, including United Way Suncoast, Manasota Goodwill, Easterseals Southwest Florida and Meals on Wheels Plus of Manatee County, have already received millions in support from the philanthropist.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 4:50 PM.