UC Merced receives multimillion dollar gift from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott
.JPG "University of California, Merced graduates walk through the campus sculpture titled “Beginnings” during commencement for the school of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts at UC Merced in Merced, Calif., Saturday, May 14, 2016.")
UC Merced has been chosen by billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott as one of 30 colleges to benefit from her latest round of donations.
UC Merced said in a news release the amount was $20 million. Other colleges on the list are slated to receive sums ranging from $7 million to $40 million, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The donation by Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, represents the most significant gift to UC Merced in the 16-year history of the college, according to a university news release.
“Any words of thanks from us would be utterly inadequate to express our full gratitude, humility and sense of responsibility to serve as careful stewards of this gift. We pledge to continue to do the work that made UC Merced deserving of this magnificent investment in our students, faculty and staff,” Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz said in the news release.
Merced is the only University of California campus to have received a gift from the couple to date, according to the release.
The record-breaking gift marks the highest year ever for fundraising in UC Merced’s history. The university this year also saw its largest enrollment and number of applications to date.
Along with UC Merced, four colleges within the California State University system are also getting funds. Other universities span states across the nation.
“We chose to make relatively large gifts to the organizations named below, both to enable their work, and as a signal of trust and encouragement, to them and to others,” Scott wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
Scott announced on Tuesday in the blog post that the donations target universities that do not typically see major philanthropic funds. Recipients span from local community colleges to larger public universities.
“Higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity, so we looked for 2- and 4-year institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved,” Scott wrote in the blog post.
In all, Scott’s contribution to the colleges, as well as other nonprofits and organizations that promoting causes like racial equity and community engagement, totals over $2.73 billion, according to The Washington Post.
Higher education donations by Scott exceeded $800 million last year. That round of funds highlighted giving to universities attended by large numbers of Black, Latino and Native American students and set donation records at many historically Black colleges.
Scott, an author and philanthropist, is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. She was previously married to Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 4:38 PM.
