a Nudge is It is not always enough to force change within the industry. In some cases, a series of forceful pushes may be necessary. In the rarefied world of Western philanthropy, 2020 began a push. The coronavirus pandemic, the racial justice protests that erupted across the U.S. that summer, and the refugee exodus from Ukraine that began in early 2022 have created a new urgency for charitable giving. , the failure of philanthropy was revealed. How it worked. Donors began to consider how they could spend their money faster and with greater impact.
Just as a storm of world events was brewing, the poster child of a new movement emerged. When Mackenzie Scott divorced her founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, she received a 4% stake in Amazon. Its value was $38 billion. That same year, she announced that she would give away money “until the coffers are empty.” As global issues unfolded in 2020, Scott began making large, unconditional grants to organizations in the United States and around the world. Without making any big declarations or establishing a charitable foundation, the quiet billionaire has since sunk in $16.5 billion. For comparison, American duty-free shopping tycoon Chuck Feeney, one of the most generous philanthropists of recent times, had given away $8 billion by the time of his death in October. 19th century businessman Andrew Carnegie donated $350 million (equivalent to $6.2 billion today).
