CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Billionaire philanthropist Mackenzie Scott announced this week that she's giving $640 million to 361 small nonprofits nationwide, including 10 in the Carolinas.
Of those 10 nonprofits, three are based in the Charlotte area. Crittenton of North Carolina, Carolinas CARE Partnership and the Camino Community Development Corporation received $2 million each.
The $641 million donation is more than double what Scott initially pledged to give away through the application process. Scott started giving away billions in 2019, when she divorced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Since that time, Scott and her team have researched and selected organizations without an application process and provided them with large, unrestricted gifts.
A spokesperson for the Camino Health Center said the organization has had to ramp up operations due to the increase of migrants. Camino Health's mission is to "equip people to live truly healthy lives" by providing affordable care to underinsured and uninsured populations, according to its website.
The organization received a $10,000 grant last November from the American Diabetes Association, giving employees an opportunity to learn more about diabetes to better help serve patients.
Some 6,353 nonprofits applied for $1 million grants when the applications opened. Of those, 279 nonprofits received top scores and were awarded $2 million, while 82 organizations were gifted $1 million each.
Scott's charitable donations have poured millions into the Charlotte area in recent years, including a monumental $18.5 million donation to Habitat for Humanity affiliates in 2022. Scott also donated $5 million to Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, an organization that provides case management services to thousands of students annually.
Habitat for Humanity said Scott's donation would be used to bolster affordable housing and home repair projects in the Charlotte area and would help the organization work to revitalize underinvested communities that were historically blocked from economic opportunities due to racial inequities.
Scott has given away $16.5 billion from the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Initially, she publicized the gifts in online blog posts, sometimes naming the organizations and sometimes not. She launched a database of her giving in December 2022, under the name Yield Giving.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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