$387 million latest gift from MacKenzie Scott supports eight historically Black colleges

MacKenzie Scott doesn’t hold press conferences, cut ribbons, or put her name on buildings. Yet over three weeks last fall, eight historically Black colleges and universities announced the largest or nearly the largest gifts in their histories, and they all came from her.

The total was about $387 million, with no restrictions attached. A year later, that wave still stands as one of the most concentrated bets any single donor has made on Black higher education. It also helped push her lifetime giving to HBCUs well past $1 billion.

The gifts were large: $80 million to Howard University, $63 million to Morgan State University, $50 million to Virginia State University, and $42 million to Alcorn State University. Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Alabama State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore each received $38 million.

Each school made its own announcement on its own schedule, as is usual with Scott’s gifts. So the news came out in a slow, steady series rather than one big release, and each campus had its own moment.

Morgan State in Baltimore went first, on October 15. Its $63 million gift was the largest individual donation in its history. Combined with her $40 million gift in 2020, it brought Scott’s total support to $103 million.

President David K. Wilson said that receiving one historic gift had been an honor, and receiving two “speaks volumes about the confidence she and her team have in our institution’s stewardship, leadership, and trajectory.” He added, “This is more than philanthropy—it’s a partnership in progress.”

Morgan put about $60 million of the gift into its unrestricted endowment, which is expected to earn $4 million to $5 million a year. It set aside $1 million right away for students in severe financial need. Hundreds of students asked for that help so they could finish the semester.

The same day, Scott posted a short note on her giving website. She predicted that when her next round of gifts appeared online, “the dollar total will likely be reported in the news.”

She called any such figure “a vanishingly tiny fraction” of the care people share every day. It was a typical Scott move: she announced the money while downplaying it.

Over the next two weeks, the news moved south and east. On October 25, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne announced $38 million, the largest single gift in its history. The 1890 land-grant school’s total from Scott rose to $58 million.

President Heidi M. Anderson said the gift “validates the lofty goals we’ve set together: removing financial barriers to completion, elevating research that solves real problems, and ensuring UMES graduates launch into great careers and lives of purpose.”

Two days later, Alabama State University President Quinton T. Ross Jr. shared news of a $38 million gift, fresh off a Magic City Classic win over Alabama A&M.

“Today marks a defining moment in the history of Alabama State University,” he wrote.

On October 28, Alcorn State University in rural Mississippi, the nation’s oldest public historically Black land-grant university, announced $42 million. It was the largest single gift in the school’s 154 years and brought Scott’s total there to $67 million.

“This gift opens a new chapter for Alcorn State,” said President Tracy M. Cook. “We will use every dollar to support students, strengthen the university, and serve Mississippi and the nation for generations to come.”

Virginia State University, south of Richmond, came next with $50 million, the largest single-donor gift in its 143 years and an increase from the $30 million she gave in 2020.

“Ms. Scott’s generosity and trust in our mission will change the trajectory of Virginia State University for generations to come,” said President Makola M. Abdullah.

Then came the biggest gift of all. On November 2, Howard University announced $80 million: $63 million for the university and $17 million for its College of Medicine, both unrestricted. It was one of the largest gifts in Howard’s history. For Scott, Howard is personal.

She studied at Princeton under Toni Morrison, a Howard graduate who advised her senior thesis, and her earlier gifts helped create an endowed chair in Morrison’s name.

The timing mattered too.

A federal government shutdown was delaying the annual appropriations Howard relies on. Interim President Wayne A. I. Frederick said the money would help fund student aid, infrastructure, and a reserve to keep operations steady.

That reserve was meant partly to help students whose families were dealing with furloughs, layoffs, and delayed food benefits. “It provides us with a lot of freedom to do what we need to do,” he said.

The next morning, Atlanta’s two neighboring campuses announced their gifts within hours of each other. Spelman College received $38 million, its second major gift from Scott in five years.

Interim President Rosalind Brewer, a Spelman graduate and former Fortune 500 chief executive, said the gift’s flexibility would let the college “move more swiftly to strengthen the entire student experience, modernize our technology infrastructure, and expand financial opportunity for scholars who call Spelman home.”

Spelman planned new scholarships for juniors and seniors who rely on Parent PLUS loans, which face new federal caps. It also planned new tools for teaching artificial intelligence.

Clark Atlanta University announced its own $38 million that afternoon. Added to her $15 million gift in 2020, Scott’s support there rose to $53 million, the largest private giving in the university’s history.

Scott’s way of giving matters as much as the amounts. Most major donations come with conditions, naming rights, and reporting requirements.

Hers comes with almost none.

A fundraiser at Bowie State, another school she has funded, called unrestricted gifts “the unicorn, the white whale of the fundraising industry.”

For institutions that foundations have long overlooked, that freedom changes what’s possible.

One widely cited analysis found that from 2015 to 2019, the average Ivy League school received 178 times as much foundation money as the average HBCU.

Her earlier gifts appear to have had lasting effects. A 2021 study found that HBCUs she funded in 2020 saw higher new-student enrollment and better retention than similar schools she didn’t fund. Several presidents have said her first gifts encouraged other donors to give.

Scott has never fully explained why these colleges hold such a central place in her giving. She has offered small clues. In a December 2025 essay, she recalled a dentist who repaired her broken tooth for free after seeing her hold it together with denture glue.

She also remembered a college roommate who lent her $1,000 when she was close to dropping out of Princeton as a sophomore. “It is these ripple effects,” she wrote, “that make imagining the power of any of our own acts of kindness impossible.”

In that same essay, she disclosed $7.1 billion in gifts for 2025 alone, bringing her giving since 2019 to more than $26 billion.

She has kept going since then.

This spring, Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina announced $42 million on its Founders Day, and that gift pushed her HBCU giving past $1 billion.

The eight gifts from last fall still form the core of that total.

They reached a flagship research university in the nation’s capital, a land-grant campus in Mississippi, and a small school on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and none of them came with conditions.

Scott pledged in 2019 to keep giving “until the safe is empty,” and these gifts are what that looks like in practice.