Star Tribune
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott surprises six more Twin Cities nonprofits with $26.1M in gifts
Six Twin Cities nonprofits are the latest local organizations to be surprised by unexpected gifts from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
Scott, an author and ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced Wednesday that she’s donating $26.1 million to six metro area organizations — part of some $2.2 billion in grants she has given to 360 organizations nationwide this year.
“I about fell out of my chair,” said Ann Cazaban, executive director of Southside Community Health Services, about the $2.6 million gift to her small clinic, which serves low-income residents in south Minneapolis. “We don’t get a lot of good surprises like this.”
The biggest of the latest local grants is $10 million for City of Lakes Community Land Trust in Minneapolis, which helps provide affordable home ownership opportunities.
The other local grantees and their awards are Project for Pride in Living (PPL), an affordable housing developer in Minneapolis, $7 million; Battered Women’s Justice Project, a St. Paul-based nonprofit that provides national training and resources, $2.5 million; Hmong American Partnership in St. Paul, $2 million; and Way to Grow, a Minneapolis-based organization that provides early childhood education, $2 million.
That’s on top of a $2 million grant that Think Small, a Little Canada-based nonprofit that administers early-learning scholarships, received from Scott in September.
Since 2020, Scott has given more than $109 million to 24 Minnesota-based nonprofits, a number taken from her database of grants and the recipients’ own statements.
Unlike most major philanthropists, Scott surprises nonprofits with unsolicited donations that often add up to record-setting gifts for them. The gifts are unrestricted, meaning that nonprofits can spend the money any way they want. They don’t have to navigate lengthy applications or reporting requirements, like they do for most grants.
Scott, 53, has an estimated net worth of about $39 billion (according to Forbes magazine) and has pledged to give away most of her wealth in her lifetime. But her generosity is shrouded in secrecy; she hasn’t spoken publicly about her philanthropy, and the public usually only finds out about the grants when nonprofits disclose the news.
Last fall, Andriana Abariotes, Project for Pride in Living’s vice president of development, received an e-mail from a consultant asking to set up a meeting to discuss an unnamed private donor’s possible donation.
“It almost seemed like a phishing thing,” she said.
PPL had a $6 million deficit last year and was on track to end this year with a deficit as well, possibly forcing layoffs. But after sharing some financials with the consultant, Abariotes said they were notified they’d get $7 million from Scott — a record amount for a one-time donation to the nonprofit.
That will help close the budget gaps and prevent layoffs while also paying down some debt, supporting employees’ pay and training, and helping close the final funding gaps on development projects as construction costs and interest rates rise.
“It’s transformative for us at a really critical time,” said Paul Williams, CEO of Project for Pride in Living. “I particularly appreciate philanthropy that thinks big.”
In September, Cazaban got a similarly cryptic email out of the blue. In a brief meeting, she was informed of the $2.6 million gift, also a record amount for Southside clinic — equaling about 40% of the total donations it gets in an entire year.
“Little Southside in south Minneapolis, how would they even find us?” she said. “They didn’t ask any questions about anything. They had already done all their due diligence.”
Cazaban said it’s a mystery why Scott’s foundation selected her organization. In past blog posts, Scott has said she’s focused on organizations dedicated to equity and the needs of underrepresented people.
“Inspired by all the ways people work together to offer each other goodwill and support,” Scott wrote online in a short three-sentence announcement Wednesday about the grants.
Southside, which provides dental, medical and vision care for low-income residents, will use Scott’s donation to help fund construction of a new 30,000-square-foot affordable community health center off E. Lake Street. The clinic will break ground in 2024 and open the center by mid-2025 on the site of a former Family Dollar store that burned down in the civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
The nearly $30 million project will allow Southside to expand services and serve more people, helping 18,000 people a year. More than a third of its clients are children.
For small nonprofits, a Scott donation is a big boost for supporting staff and programs, said Carolyn Smallwood, CEO of Way to Grow.
“It’s a game-changer in how organizations can serve more folks,” she said, adding that the $2 million Way to Grow received last spring from Scott will help it serve 300 more families a year with early childhood education via home visits.
The Battered Women’s Justice Project will use its gift to beef up its reserves and boost its programming, possibly by adding more staffing, CEO Amy Sanchez said.
Getting such a significant gift from Scott is a vote of confidence for Twin Cities nonprofits, Abariotes said, and may possibly inspire other philanthropists. Cazaban said she hopes Scott’s philanthropy will help change how other foundations give out money, perhaps reducing the typically rigorous process of applying for grants and reporting results.
Scott’s foundation “said, ‘We trust you will use this money toward the mission and help as many people as you can,’ ” Cazaban said. “It’s a very unusual way.”
Minnesota nonprofits receiving surprise grants from MacKenzie Scott
According to Scott’s website, yieldgiving.com, and individual nonprofits’ announcements, she’s given more than $95 million in the last three years to these Minnesota nonprofits:
- Southside Community Health Services, $2.6 million (2023)
- Project for Pride in Living, $7 million (2023)
- City of Lakes Community Land Trust, $10 million (2023)
- Hmong American Partnership, $2 million (2023)
- Way to Grow, $2 million (2023)
- Think Small, $2 million (2023)
- Battered Women’s Justice Project, $2.5 million (2023)
- Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys, $4.2 million (2022)
- Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities, $4.8 million (2022)
- Big Brothers Big Sisters Twin Cities, $6 million (2022)
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Minnesota, $1.5 million (2022)
- Red Lake Nation Boys & Girls Club, $875,000 (2022)
- Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, $13.5 million (2022)
- Dakota Medical Foundation, $10 million (2022)
- Boys and Girls Club of White Earth, $1.25 million (2022)
- Junior Achievement North, $1.9 million (2022)
- YMCA of the North, $18 million (2021)
- Penumbra Theatre, $5 million (2021)
- Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, $7 million (2021)
- YWCA St. Paul, $3 million (2021)
- Duluth Area Family YMCA, undisclosed amount (2020)
- YMCA of Cass and Clay Counties, $10 million (2020)
- Esperanza United, undisclosed amount (2020)
YWCA Cass Clay, $2 million (2020)
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
Some take him up on it and fret when he’s not around.
“It is nice to be missed and be part of the school’s culture,” Arzola said. But mostly, he added, he wants kids to know that police aren’t around just for when the bad stuff happens. He’ll hand out his stickers and bracelets, even a trading card bearing his image. Then, they’ll talk about dogs and family.
School resource officer Al Arzola talks to students in his office at John Adams Middle School in Rochester on Oct. 11. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Two months ago, Rochester played host to a three-day training session for new SROs from across the state — an event organized by the Minnesota School Safety Center. On the final day, the 26 officers learned about surveillance challenges at the other school where Arzola works: Dakota Middle School.
It is a beautiful building with a scenic view. There is a lot of glass, too. Arzola, handling the role of instructor and tour guide, took the group outside and noted how one could look straight through the entrance to the large groups that gather inside. There were no curbs in front, either.
“There is nothing stopping any vehicle whatsoever from going through my front doors,” Arzola told the officers. “Law enforcement wasn’t talked to before this building was made. It was kind of like, ‘Here it is. You’re the SRO. Do what you do.’”
He showed them his office, too, which is separate from the main office and near those of other school support staff members. That makes sense, said Jenny Larrive, SRO coordinator for the Minnesota School Safety Center, given than SROs spend more time connecting with youth than on actual law enforcement.
“The basic rule in Minnesota is you cannot preemptively post law enforcement at a polling place,” he said. “A city can’t say, ‘Wow, Precinct Two, there’s a lot of intensity there, let’s just put a cop at the door.’”
Simon doesn’t go deep into the details on security, though. “I don’t want to give a total road map to the bad guys,” he said.
But testimony at the Capitol last year on behalf of the new law bolstering protections for election and polling place workers indicated there’s room for concern. One election worker was followed to her car by an angry voter; the head of elections in another county was called repeatedly on her home phone during off hours, and an official was lunged at by an aggrieved voter, forcing her to call the local sheriff.
Those who violate the law could now face civil damages and penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation.
The Brennan Center survey indicated more than four in 10 election leaders were concerned about recruiting enough poll workers due to threats of harassment and intimidation. This includes doxing — publishing a person’s personal information online in a threatening manner — and swatting, fake emergency calls that result in an armed response being sent to someone’s home.
“Election officials are working to prepare for everything right now,” said Liz Howard, director of partnership engagement at the Brennan Center. “More than 90% of election officials have made improvements to election security since 2020.”
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