Why we’re watching: MacKenzie Scott exploded onto the philanthropy scene two years ago, immediately becoming one of the top philanthropists in dollar terms. We’re watching to see if she begins to expand her giving to global development, which so far appears to have received a tiny fraction of her donations compared with U.S. domestic nonprofits.

Leadership: Carlos Rodrigues, president.
Staff: Around five.
$: Somewhere north of $8.5 billion since 2020.
HQ: Seattle.
Tidbit: Scott’s unsolicited giving has been exploited by scam artists posing as her representatives — so much so that Scott’s Twitter bio is dedicated entirely to warning that she will never ask for personal information or money.
Follow: Stephanie Beasley.

Analysis: MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy is an interesting and important story to follow for several reasons. There’s the sheer scale of it, rivaling the Gates Foundation right off the starting line. There’s the grassroots approach: large checks to small organizations with no strings or strategy attached. There’s the unusual management, outsourcing the vetting to the nonprofit consultancy Bridgespan Group. There’s the lack of transparency too (hence the nonspecific monetary figure above), although Scott says she will soon provide more information, including a grants database. For the global development community, the big question is whether Scott’s giving will become a major source of funding for issues such as global health and human rights. From the little we know so far, her giving has focused on U.S. domestic issues, and there are enough of those to occupy her entire vast fortune. She described her initial round of gifts as including $130 million for global development out of more than $1.67 billion, which works out to 8%. Her most recent publicly identified grants included several African and Indian organizations, so perhaps there’s more to come. — RK.

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