{"id":4759,"date":"2026-08-02T14:49:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T14:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4759"},"modified":"2026-08-02T14:49:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T14:49:48","slug":"most-billionaires-are-stuck-in-slow-philanthropy-mackenzie-scott-gave-away-26-billion-and-wont-stop-until-the-safe-is-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4759","title":{"rendered":"Most billionaires are stuck in \u2018slow philanthropy.\u2019 MacKenzie Scott gave away $26 billion and won\u2019t stop until \u2018the safe is empty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The fascination with Scott doesn\u2019t just have to do with the amount the novelist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has given away\u2014more than $26 billion\u2014but also the pace at which she\u2019s doled it out. She\u2019s given away that sum of money in just a matter of a few years, which steers heavily away from how billionaires usually give away their fortunes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Indeed, families with more than $500 million in assets gave away about 1.2% of those assets in 2017, according to research from the Bridgespan Group, a global consulting firm for nonprofits and philanthropy. When Bridgespan ran the numbers again for 2023, the figure was essentially unchanged, even though those fortunes had been compounding at rates at or above the S&P 500\u2019s long-run average of roughly 9%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In other words, while the absolute dollars in giving grew, the share of wealth stood still. That\u2019s the pattern Bridgespan cofounder Jeffrey Bradach has coined as \u201cslow philanthropy.\u201d In an essay adapted from Bridgespan\u2019s research and published by Stanford Social Innovation Review<\/em> on Thursday, he argues the giving of many ultra-wealthy people lags far behind the aspirations they express. These plans are sometimes laid out by signing Giving Pledge letters, but other research has shown they often don\u2019t follow through.<\/p>\n

The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) argues the Giving Pledge is \u201cunfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThree-quarters of the original U.S. Giving Pledgers who are still alive remain billionaires today,\u201d according to IPS. \u201cThey have collectively gotten far wealthier since they signed, while just eight of 22 deceased Pledgers fulfilled their pledges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Active philanthropists like Melinda French Gates have grilled her fellow billionaires about how they\u2019re not living up to their promises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cHave they given enough? No,\u201d French Gates said in an interview with Wired <\/em>published in late 2025.<\/p>\n

But French Gates has recently praised Scott for her pace and approach to philanthropic giving, telling Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Most Powerful Women Editor Emma Hinchliffe that actions often speak louder than words when it comes to charity.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI look back at the giving MacKenzie [Scott] has done in the last year,\u201d French Gates said. \u201cLook at what she has said about historically Black colleges in the United States and the importance of them. People are maybe not always speaking about their grant-making, but boy, they are doing it behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bradach also directly highlighted Scott as the odd woman out, but in a good way, calling her the \u201cmost generous individual philanthropist of this century.\u201d And what sets Scott apart, according to Bradach, is how she thinks about it.<\/p>\n

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Why billionaire philanthropy usually moves slowly<\/h2>\n

Bradach identifies a few reasons why billionaire philanthropy tends to move slowly. One is that failure feels worse in philanthropy than in investing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile a for-profit investor might celebrate a portfolio of ten investments that had two \u2018home runs,\u2019 five average performers, and three underperformers, donors rarely think about their philanthropy this way,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So often they\u2019ll fixate on overhead and waste. They struggle to delegate, with some major donors insisting on personally approving every grant even when they have professional staff to help. Many underestimate how much money a nonprofit can actually put to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Scott is once again an outlier here. Scott practices \u201ctrust-based philanthropy,\u201d Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, previously told Fortune<\/em>. This means Scott has little oversight in how funds are used, a practice called unrestricted giving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cUnlike traditional funding processes that often involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements, her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,\u201d Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, told Fortune<\/em> in late 2024, when her organization received a $30 million gift from Scott.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for other philanthropists, extensive overhead often means a tendency to delay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery nonprofit seeking support from a philanthropist is not just competing with other nonprofits, but with a donor\u2019s option to leave the money in the bank\u2014and maybe give later,\u201d Bradach wrote. \u201cIn the absence of a forcing function, delay is costless to the donor and easy to rationalize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speeding up billionaire philanthropy is no easy task. The pathways where philanthropic money already flows freely (bequests, donor-advised funds, and the Giving Pledge) all share one feature: They separate the decision to commit from the decision of where the money ultimately goes, lowering the hurdle to acting on impulse. Charitable bequests, he notes, hit a record $62 billion in 2025, outpacing growth in giving by living donors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBequests sidestep many of the internal frictions that slow philanthropy,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

For Bradach, the deeper fix for \u201cslow philanthropy\u201d is a shift in mindset, reviving what he calls \u201cthe gift,\u201d a way of giving rooted in generosity and moral obligation rather than metrics and ROI. Scott, he notes, is the rare billionaire who calls her fortune something to be given, not managed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care,\u201d Scott wrote in her Giving Pledge letter signed in 2019. \u201cBut I won\u2019t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Most billionaires let their fortunes grow faster than they can give them away. Scott has spent years proving it doesn’t have to be that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mackenzie-scott"],"yoast_head":"\nMost billionaires are stuck in \u2018slow philanthropy.\u2019 MacKenzie Scott gave away $26 billion and won\u2019t stop until \u2018the safe is empty\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4759\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Most billionaires are stuck in \u2018slow philanthropy.\u2019 MacKenzie Scott gave away $26 billion and won\u2019t stop until \u2018the safe is empty\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most billionaires let their fortunes grow faster than they can give them away. 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