MacKenzie Scott's recent college gifts top $1.1B. See who got funding.
University of California, Merced and Carl Albert State College are among the latest institutions to receive donations from the philanthropist.
www.highereddive.comHere’s the latest I can share based on recent reporting:
- Mackenzie Scott has continued a heavy pace of giving to higher education, with multiple six- and seven-figure gifts to a range of institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and public universities. These gifts are described as unrestricted or broadly applicable to student support, endowments, and capacity building.[6][7]
- In 2026, reporting highlighted several notable moves, including a substantial gift to an HBCU and ongoing year-over-year totals that push her higher-ed giving past the $1 billion mark for the period, with commentary that this constitutes a meaningful shift in philanthropy toward college access and student success.[8][6]
- Coverage also notes that her giving often emphasizes equity, access for low-income and first-generation students, and support for institutions serving large underrepresented or marginalized student populations.[4][5]
Key examples you might find in the filings and announcements:
- A sizable unrestricted gift to an HBCU or public university within the past year or two, frequently in the tens of millions range, aimed at endowment strengthening, scholarship expansion, and capacity-building projects.[2][5]
- A milestone where total higher-education gifts exceed the billion-dollar threshold for the year or multi-year window, with multiple institutions benefitting from large, unrestricted commitments.[7]
If you’d like, I can pull the most current individual gifts (institution names and amounts) and summarize trends (e.g., geographic distribution, focus areas like scholarships versus endowments) in a concise bullets list or a small chart. I can also verify any particular institution you care about. Please tell me which institutions or regions you want prioritized.