MacKenzie Scott led 2025 megadonors with about $7 billion in gifts

MacKenzie Scott gave about $7 billion in 2025, making her the largest U.S. megadonor of the year, according to Giving USA and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy data cited by Fortune. Her giving represented roughly one-third of the $19.2 billion in large gifts tracked last year, underscoring how one donor can shift the totals in American philanthropy.

Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has now given $26.2 billion over five years, Fortune reported. The donations have gone to thousands of organizations working on housing, diversity, equity and inclusion, disaster recovery and other causes, according to Fortune.

The new figures came as Giving USA and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy reported that overall charitable giving in the United States reached $617.2 billion in 2025. The total, which includes donations from individuals, bequests, foundations and companies to U.S. charities, was up 5.7% from the previous year, according to the report.

Other major donors

Scott’s total outpaced several other prominent donors tracked in the 2025 megagift data, according to Giving USA and the Lilly Family School figures cited by Fortune. Michael Bloomberg gave $4.3 billion, Bill Gates gave $3.7 billion and Warren Buffett gave $1.34 billion.

Susan and Michael Dell also ranked among the year’s major donors, with nearly $1 billion in gifts, according to the same data. Giving USA’s report said recipient categories with some of the highest levels of support included religion, human services, education, health, international affairs, and arts and culture.

Gabe Cooper, vice chair of Giving USA Foundation and founder and CEO of Virtuous, said in a statement that 2025 was “a positive year for charitable giving,” with nearly all categories of recipient organizations showing solid or better growth in aggregate.

A low-profile approach

Scott’s giving has stood out partly because of how little public promotion accompanies it. Fortune reported that she does not typically seek media attention for her donations and rarely provides detailed public explanations of individual gifts.

That approach also affected how she appeared in another philanthropy ranking. The Chronicle of Philanthropy said Scott was a notable absence from its Philanthropy 50 list because she and her representatives declined to provide information that might have shown gifts to donor-advised funds large enough to qualify.

Scott has explained some of her thinking in public essays. Fortune reported that she has pointed to earlier acts of help in her own life, including a college roommate who gave her $1,000 so she could stay in school and a dentist who provided free dental care when she could not pay.

After her divorce from Bezos, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, committing to give away most of her wealth, Fortune reported. Bloomberg’s billionaire index put her net worth at nearly $35 billion, a figure Fortune tied to the Amazon shares she received in the divorce.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.