MacKenzie Scott received billions of dollars in Amazon stock when she divorced Jeff Bezos. Every year, she gives large awards to mostly worthy groups. Up to now, she has not made a gift to a group that supports public schools. She just gave $2 million to a great organization in Austin, Texas.
I confess that I washed my hands of MacKenzie Scott and her advisors in 2022 when I read that she gave $25 million to Teach for America. TFA undermines the teaching profession by sending in amateurs to teach for two years. Worse, TFA has no financial need. It has way more than $300 million in assets and a long list of overpaid executives. With so many worthy and penniless groups struggling to survive, why enrich a bloated TFA?
But here is a good grant, though much smaller than what Scott gave TFA:
Austin Voices for Education and Youth Receives $2 Million Gift From the Yield Giving Open Call
For Immediate Release
Contact: Allen Weeks, Executive Director, Austin Voices
March 19, 2024
–
Today, MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving announced Austin Voices for Education and Youth as one of the Yield Giving Open Call’s awardees working with people and in places
experiencing the greatest need in the United States.
Austin Voices received $2 million.
Founded in 2003, Austin Voices for Education and Youth creates community collaboration to
strengthen families, support kids and improve schools. We believe our public schools can serve
as powerful hubs for bringing neighborhoods, families and students together to increase equity
and achieve positive change.
More information about Austin Voices, including our most recent Impact Report, can be found at http://www.austinvoices.org.
In March 2023, Yield Giving launched an Open Call for community-led, community-focused
organizations whose explicit purpose is to enable individuals and families to achieve substantive
improvement in their well-being through foundational resources.
“Receiving this generous gift from MacKenzie Scott and Yield Giving will allow us to serve more families in Austin, help more kids succeed in schools, and expand the next generation of student and parent leaders. In a time when schools are squeezed for resources, this gift is tremendously helpful,” says Allen Weeks, Executive Director of Austin Voices for Education and Youth.
The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million
each. In the Fall of 2023, organizations top-rated by their peers advanced to a second round of
review by an external Evaluation Panel recruited for experience relevant to this cause, and
underwent a final round of due diligence. In light of the incredible work of these organizations,
as judged by their peers and external panelists, the donor team decided to expand the awardee
pool and the award amount.
“We are excited that our partnership with Yield Giving has resonated with so many organizations,” said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. “In a world teeming with potential and talent, the Open Call has given us an opportunity to identify, uplift, and empower transformative organizations that often remain unseen.”
More information on the Yield Giving Open Call and other initiatives can be found at
http://www.leverforchange.org.
Yield Giving
Established by MacKenzie Scott to share a financial fortune created through the effort of
countless people, Yield Giving is named after a belief in adding value by giving up control. To
date, Yield’s network of staff and advisors has yielded over $16,500,000,000 to 1,900+ non-
profit teams to use as they see fit for the benefit of others.
To learn more, visit
http://www.yieldgiving.com.
Lever for Change
Lever for Change connects donors with bold solutions to the world’s biggest problems—
including issues like racial inequity, gender inequality, lack of access to economic opportunity, and climate change. Using an inclusive, equitable model and due diligence process, Lever for Change creates customized challenges and other tailored funding opportunities. Top-ranked teams and challenge finalists become members of the Bold Solutions Network—a growing global network that helps secure additional funding, amplify YIELD GIVING OPEN CALL AWARDEE TOOLKIT members’ impact, and accelerate social change. Founded in 2019 as a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Lever for Change has influenced over $1.7 billion in grants to date and provided support to more than 145
organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.leverforchange.org.
Mackenzie Scott should give $25 million to Austin Voices for Education and Youth and another $25 million to Community Coices for Education in ZHouston.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why not give directly to a public school or a public school system rather than to some non-profit group?
Ask MacKenzie Scott.
She won’t return my calls unfortunately.
She doesn’t return my calls either.
Take my respect,
Though the reply not directly related to the specific topic, but it is not completely out of the topic. I am facing a special problem about my students that how to improve my students skills on their field of interest? Because due to lag of required tools & equipment I am unable to fulfill their requirement. Is there any solution from your position. I am a technical teacher at a private technical institute from Bangladesh. If you have any solution from your position, please let me know about as early as possible.
I also created a support calculation tools for the students all over the world, you can share the link to your students & it is free to use.
The link of my site is, https://safidulsir.blogspot.com
Thanks & best wishes to all of you.
Better yet, why not pay higher taxes and save the world.
This is a welcome gift to a group that supports public schools that are often forgotten and attacked by those with lots of money. Both charter schools and vouchers are generously supported by billionaires that have no need for the common good, and many of them think privatization will reduce their taxes, although the ballooning price tag for vouchers may change that perception. Public schools are too often taken for granted, but they require investment to better serve future generations. These are the schools that helped build our nation, and they are an expression of democracy in action.
Giving to TFA was a mistake. People make mistakes. And people can learn from their mistakes and change for the better. And they can do better in 2024 than they did in 2022. And they can do better in 2026 than they did in 2024. Cheers!
Scott also donated $2 million to Boston based Lawyers for Civil Rights. Among other cases, they’ve supported dismantling test based admissions to Boston’s elite public schools and reducing the number of school-based police. They also took on the case of an undocumented student who, after a verbal argument in the school cafeteria, was deported, though he was awaiting his green card.
Sounds like Scott’s got a wider group of advisors.
Christine, note that the organizations we admire get $2 million, not $25 million.