SoCal organizations, colleges among recipients of MacKenzie Scott's $4.2-billion charity effort

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- MacKenzie Scott, philanthropist, author and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has announced that she has given away nearly $4.2 billion in the past four months to hundreds of organizations, including several in Southern California.

Goodwill in Southern California, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, Genesis LA and United Way of Greater Los Angeles are among the local organizations benefitting from her donations.

Mount St. Mary's University of Los Angeles and Whittier College are also among the beneficiaries of Scott's donation.

Whittier College officials said they received $12 million.

"The unrestricted donation will be apportioned to the areas that will make the greatest impact at Whittier, including providing additional need-based scholarships, creating new innovative programs, and support for the College's Racial Justice and Equity Action Plan, Office of Equity and Inclusion, Gender Equity Center, environmental justice work, and faculty diversity efforts," Whittier College stated on its website.

Mount Saint Mary's announced they were gifted $15 million, which will go toward initiatives such as helping create new academic programs and establish "cutting-edge learning technologies and educational spaces".

Scott recently announced her pandemic-era philanthropy in a Medium post Tuesday. The $4,158,500,000 in donations have gone to nearly 400 organizations, mainly in areas struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, food insecurity and racial inequity.

After Scott donated $1.68 billion to 116 nonprofits, universities, community development groups and legal organizations last July, she asked a team of advisers to help her "accelerate" her 2020 giving with immediate help to those financially gutted by the pandemic.

Scott is worth more than $60 billion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.