MacKenzie Scott upended philanthropy as we know it. Melinda French Gates is catching on
CNN
In her cameo in the 1996 comedy First Wives Club, Ivana Trump offers a witty post-divorce kernel of wisdom: “Don’t get mad, get everything.” The 2024 version of that sentiment, at least among a certain class of billionaire women, might tack on an addendum: Get everything, and give it all away as fast as humanly possible.
In her cameo in the 1996 comedy First Wives Club, Ivana Trump offers a witty post-divorce kernel of wisdom: “Don’t get mad, get everything.” The 2024 version of that sentiment, at least among a certain class of billionaire women, might tack on an addendum: Get everything, and give it all away as fast as humanly possible. That’s the way MacKenzie Scott, one of America’s single largest philanthropists, has chosen to disburse the spoils of her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019. And it’s a style that Melinda French Gates appears to be emulating, at least partly, in her newly solo philanthropic venture. On Tuesday, French Gates revealed in a New York Times essay that her first project after leaving the foundation she co-founded with her ex, Bill Gates, would focus on advancing women’s rights around the world. French Gates said she is “experimenting with novel tactics” such as doling out $20 million grants to 12 smart people and letting them do with it what they see fit. “I’m eager to see the landscape of funding opportunities through their eyes.” That kind of unrestricted giving is uncommon in the traditionally bureaucratic realm of philanthropy. But it’s not unheard of, and that’s largely thanks to the way women generally, and Scott in particular, have taken a radical, trust-based approach to giving. “I think it’s been the bane of a lot of nonprofits’ existence is that, if it’s government grants, they have to comply with a lot of red tape to demonstrate that they’re having an impact,” Amir Pasic, the dean of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, tells me. “And I think a lot of philanthropies, especially the highly professional foundations kind of emulate that way of looking at things — they want you to know how to measure the impact that you’re having … And nobody asks the nonprofits if these are even the appropriate impact measures.”
Thanksgiving dinner will cost less this year than last but will still be 19% higher than before the pandemic, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Thanksgiving survey out Wednesday.
Comcast is planning to spin off most of its cable television networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, into a separate publicly traded company, according to executives with knowledge of the plan.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has sued a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee and the families of some of the Sandy Hook victims in an attempt to stop the sale of his media empire Infowars to the satirical news outlet The Onion.
The cat’s out of the bag: Jaguar has unveiled a new logo that emphasizes its posh pronunciation as it transitions into a “new era” that emphasizes its all-electric vehicle lineup.
Markets sold off Tuesday as geopolitical tensions escalated between Ukraine and Russia.
Protesters opposed to Tesla’s expansion of its plant near Berlin were holding out in trees Tuesday as German police sought to clear their forested camp.
Jersey Mike’s Subs is selling a significant stake to private equity giant Blackstone, ending its nearly seven-decade run as an independently owned business that transformed into a major competitor against well-entrenched competitors like Subway.
Walmart’s business is surging. Customers making more than $100,000 a year are fueling the growth.
The president-elect’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrations may backfire, driving up the cost of homebuying even further.
In the first quarter of this year, the price of bitcoin broke records in the wake of approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds. The cryptocurrency topped $70,000 in March, according to coinmarketcap.com.
Donald Trump is returning to the White House without many of the guardrails of his first term.