MacKenzie Scott donates $26 billion in 7 years, more than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ combined lifetime donations

According to Forbes, Mackenzie Scott has donated $26 billion in the past seven years, including a record $7.2 billion in 2025. This rate of giving makes her the third-largest philanthropist of all time. Scott is a novelist and former spouse of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She distributes funds primarily through large, unrestricted grants to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States and internationally. Her total giving since 2019 has now reached $26 billion, according to public data compiled by philanthropy trackers and financial publications.She donated $7.2 billion in 2025, the largest donation in a single year in her philanthropic career. The record year accelerated her overall giving total and put her ahead of most living donors in cumulative lifetime giving.Scott donated $26 billion during his lifetime, making him the third-largest philanthropist of all time in absolute terms. Only two people in modern history have made more contributions in their lifetime.Her 2025 donation alone exceeds the combined lifetime contributions of several prominent billionaires, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Larry Page, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and her ex-husband Jeff Bezos.Scott’s philanthropic strategy differs from that of many large donors. Rather than establishing a traditional foundation with an extensive application process, she relied on an advisory team to identify organizations and make grants with few restrictions on how the funds could be used. Recipients include charities focused on education, racial equity, public health, housing, food security and community development.Since announcing his intention to give away most of his wealth in 2019, Scott has moved unusually quickly compared to other billionaires. The $26 billion total represents one of the fastest large-scale charitable distributions in modern history.Much of her wealth comes from her 2019 divorce settlement with Jeff Bezos, when she received a stake in Amazon. She has since sold some of her shares to fund her charitable giving.This comparison is based on the total public donations made by Musk, Page, Ellison and Bezos during their lifetimes. Despite their large pledges and charitable foundations, they’ve actually given away less to date than Scott has given away in 2025 alone.Scott has not publicly indicated a set end date for her donation. However, her pace over the past seven years suggests she intends to continue distributing the majority of her wealth.