Three historically black North Carolina colleges have received record financial gifts from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
Scott, former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, gave Winston-Salem State University a record $30 million as part of more than $4.15 billion in donations to 384 organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Scott donated a record $45 million to North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, and $15 million to Elizabeth City State University, also a record for the school. At least 13 HBCUs in addition to the three in North Carolina, received gifts from Scott.
Among the other recipients she listed in a post on Medium.com. are food banks, emergency relief funds and legal defense funds which address institutional discrimination. In her post, Scott said she wanted to help those suffering the health and economic effects of COVID-19, especially people of color, people living in poverty and women.