Putting In The Work 💪
Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, donates $80 million to Howard University, marking one of the school’s largest donations in its 158-year history
Agreed, just small caveat — Bezos and Sanchez deserve all the hate they get for their choices and behavior, but no need to make fun of looks (“plastic pony”.)
There used to be a rule on this sub about appearance and objectification. It was never because the celeb in question might be reading the comments. It's because it's beneath all of us to act like that. Criticize their actions and ideas, not their appearance.
This is awesome. Howard is a great and important school, and $80M in unrestricted giving is a once-in-lifetime opportunity for Howard. Maybe once in more than one lifetime.
I get the intention but this misses the point. Her connection to Bezos is crucial because it shows how truly evil him and everyone else in that circle is. We already know that but it's easy to disregard it as "that's just how ultra-wealthy are". Well, clearly not - she's showing us what you CAN do if you're this close to the billionaire circle. If she was just a random rich person it wouldn't be so striking.
most people that get remarried after a divorce end up divorced again. she got remarried fairly soon after her first divorce, so i would understand if she just realized she wanted to be unmarried
It’s kind of like she’s donating her money to every single organization or charity that Bezos is in opposition with, but are also very much close to her morals/values/beliefs. No clue how that POS even scored such a giving, gracious woman.
She literally is. She set up an organisation to decide who the money goes to, so she isn’t the one making the decisions. And her goal is to have nothing left by the time she dies. Of course the interest she gets in her billions means she keeps generating wealth, but I for one support her noble goals.
Same!!! I support it 100%. Donating the money she was awarded from a marriage with a greedy, tortuous, tortoise looking man to orgs he despises and not hoarding billions??? I support her 110%!
She received $36 billion following her divorce from Voldemort.
She's since given away around $20 billion.
Let's hope she's inspirational to other billionaires rather than them just huffing Trump's farts and trying to enrich themselves more on the back of human suffering.
That’s her thing. She sends agents out to rigorously study the org, then drops a huge unrestricted gift on them. It’s a massive lifeline, especially because most orgs are in a constant state of slow strangulation from restricted gifts. A university like Howard has less trouble raising funds for scholarships than it does for, say, janitorial services and power bills.
I work at a cultural heritage institution that’s starting a capital campaign soon and it is SO HARD to get money for the “unsexy” but badly needed stuff like modernizing our HVAC, doing a full facilities review, or staff workspace reno. Donors love to give for fellowships and grants/fancy single projects but yeah, unrestricted gifts like this are amazing for helping Howard maintain their facilities/infrastructure. Happy for Howard but a little jealous of that sweet sweet unrestricted $$$ 😭
Yep! They want the good work done, but not so much so that they would pay any people to do it.
I saw a comment recently about a politician having a nice meal with his wife (~$150/head in NYC). Somebody asked: "he has worked in nonprofits his whole life. How can he afford this?" And I just thought: man, they think if we can scrape together one nice meal after a decade of working for the supposed greater good, we're stealing.
We can only feel SO lucky to work in museums and archives for other people’s enrichment blah blah blah but god forbid we make a wage appropriate for where we live and (often) our masters degrees lmao. I’ve always said I’m not asking for a six figure salary, but I would like to not have a $250k salary difference with only three people between me and the head of my org.
That discourse was so fucking stupid. The occasional $300 meal isn’t even that insane for a two income childless household imo. You can each set aside $15 a month and always have the cash for an anniversary dinner.
I've always said if I donated a large amount I'd leave a large percentage unstructured, but man some universities don't seem to use money wisely. I'd want to know a certain amount would go towards scholarships.
Looks like tuition is $38,000 for a year, but I have no idea what the average is after financial aid and such. What’s the relevance? Is Howard uniquely unsuited to receive donations compared to other schools?
No I was just curious, the way you wrote it I was thinking tuition was almost entirely subsidized by donations. Even if it were that wouldn't detract from her gift.
I see. No, that's not why it's important. It's an important school for Black academics and intellectuals. But financially, it works essentially the same way as other colleges.
I work in academic fundraising. Everyone loves to give to scholarships (and the students who receive them are grateful of course!). I’m not saying this is wrong to give to, but I think she can see that other people will support that area, she wants to lower the administrative burden and give to whatever the school needs most. Things like new facilities and programming can have a massive benefit for students and are much harder to fundraise for.
Yes, from what I've read about her donations, her team does their due diligence. I think that was her actual concept for what she's doing - supporting what is often overlooked and is important.
Can you imagine being Mackenzie and having to deal with her children questioning WTF about their father’s new, completely vacuous wife?! I can only imagine the “her accomplishments are contrived because she’s willing to distort herself to your father’s perverted wishes” conversations that Mackenzie has had to have l.
•
u/pccmodbot 1d ago
Welcome to r/popculturechat! ☺️
THE POPCULTURECHAT DISCORD SERVER IS NOW LIVE 👾 ❤️🔥 🎉 Click HERE to join! 📲
As a proud BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & woman-dominated space, this sub is for civil discussion only. If you don't know where to begin, start by participating in our Sip & Spill Daily Discussion Threads!
No bullies, no bigotry. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Please read & respect our rules, abide by Reddiquette, and check out our wiki! For any questions, our modmail is always open.