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)
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
