MacKenzie Scott's $250 million open call for donations yields applications from 6,353 nonprofits

abcnews.go.com:

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s first open call for grants yielded 6,353 applications from nonprofits — meaning candidates have at least a 4% chance of being selected for a $1 million grant

NEW YORK — Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott's first open call for grants yielded 6,353 applications from nonprofits — meaning candidates have at least a 4% chance of being selected for a $1 million grant.

Lever for Change, the nonprofit overseeing the application process, said Wednesday that the applications came from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The 250 winners will be announced in early 2024.

Scott has shaken up philanthropic giving since 2019, dropping large, unrestricted and unexpected donations on nonprofits when she began giving away the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She has donated more than $14 billion in unrestricted funds to 1,600 nonprofit organizations. Scott is currently worth more than $36 billion, according to Forbes.

In March, her organization, Yield Giving, announced it was soliciting grant applications for the first time. Until then, Scott and her team of advisors made grants by selecting and vetting organizations on their own. This open call created the first pathway to apply, but also created pressure on fundraisers and nonprofits to finally win some of her support.

Melanie Lambert has worked in nonprofit fundraising since 2007 and now runs her own grant writing consulting business from Georgia. She expressed some dismay that the application was limited to organizations with budgets between $1 million and $5 million.

“That really eliminates a lot of those organizations that that million-dollar gift would be transformational for,”