MacKenzie Scott gives Big Brothers Big Sisters of America $122.6 million

Originally published at: MacKenzie Scott gives Big Brothers Big Sisters of America $122.6 million | Boing Boing

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Doctor Who Yes GIF

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Firstly, it’s wonderful to see a Billionaire using their funds this way. Not that I personally have a problem with trying to bring costs of spaceflight down to where mere mortals can afford it, but there are lots of right now problems that need solving on earth, and we have enough focus on rocketry at this point IMHO. :slight_smile:

An important point to note is that apparently she is giving these out as unrestricted donations. That is very much not the norm, and in fact it is why the Wikimedia Foundation rejects large donations outright (as, obviously, the Google’s and Microsofts of the world have offered large donations in the past). The Foundation is concerned about any one external entity having too much sway, using dollars, over the direction of the Foundation or Wikipedia, since the goal is for it to be both neutral and for everyone. Rarely do large donations happen without some sort of oversight from the donor in how those dollars can be spent. “Ongoing” donations have the same issue, as the charity then becomes beholden to the repeat donor for a revenue stream.

This is made even more interesting because Bezos makes a point of using his money specifically for influence (see his purchase of Woot for no other reason than he didn’t “understand” their appeal and didn’t want them to create a new market segment.)

Ms Scott appears to be a full 180 from her ex’s philosophy, and that’s both refreshing and welcome.

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One of my childhood friends and his siblings were recipients of the BB/BS program. I’m so glad to see this agency getting a helping hand from Scott.

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I love that she is giving away all the money he was too greedy to give away himself. I don’t know the inner workings of their former relationship but I’m guessing this was a major sticking point for the two of them. She thought the family wealth should be put to work helping the world and he wanted a Scrooge McDuck-sized vault to swim around in between meetings about rocket ships and yachts.

Maybe divorcing him and taking half the wealth was the only way that money would get put to work?

Greed is a tough dragon to slay.

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Another gift as of late:

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Compounding interest compounding goodness.

If you have billions, the yield coming off of dividends must be near inexhaustible. Isn’t that how Bill Gates made most of his money? There is that threshold where dividends exceeds one’s ability to spend, and then an exponential curve appears, if you don’t change anything. Scott is a goddess for flipping the equation and giving it away to good causes.

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This is an absolute, she had said so many times. She can not give it away fast enough to deplete the principal amount, big “ata’gal” for trying though.

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She totally confirms everything Robert Reich keeps saying about the nature of billionaire wealth.

So we have to ask ourselves: From where does all that dividend wealth comes from? Profit? What is that and where does it come from? Basically, it’s money that companies chose to direct to investors—instead of to workers’ pay and to consumers, in the form of lower prices. So the public gets whacked at two sides at once. And, if you look at going into debt to pay for things, you see financial institutions hitting from you at a third side.

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This is freaking fantastic. I have to admit, I am prejudiced when it comes to Big Brothers Big Sisters. My wife has worked for them for about 30 years and I have been a volunteer mentor for several kids over that time. One kid I was matched with at 11 years old is now 34, married with a couple of kids and they are doing quite well. This past March I went to see Everclear with him and his wife. We had been matched for maybe two months when he got into my car and asked to play a song - Everclear’s “Father of Mine”. My first thought was 'better not *@!# this up, Jim".

Just a great, great organization. Gearing up to start a new match shortly.

I’m also thrilled to see MacKenzie Scott donating all this money and making it unrestricted.

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