The gift is the largest ever awarded to the Baltimore City university.
Maryland’s Morgan State University got an amazing holiday gift this year. The state’s largest historically black college and university was one of more than 350 organizations across the country that received grants from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Most of the money from the grant will be placed in the school’s endowment to help secure the school’s future. Scott, an author and philanthropist, has donated over $42 billion dollars in the last few months. This award is the largest in Morgan State University’s history and the second-largest amount donated to any university in Maryland.
The gift from Scott comes at a time when the university is seeking to become a top research university and the first HBCU to reach R1 status. A majority of the grant will be placed in the school’s “Leading the World Endowment Fund,” doubling the amount currently invested.
“Endowment gifts have a strong and lasting influence and build institutional capacity in the most fundamental and sustainable way,” said Donna Howard, vice president for Institutional Advancement. “The impact of Ms. Scott’s gift will reverberate profoundly into the future as we prepare the next generations of leaders and scholars in the arts and sciences.”
Portions of the grant from Scott will go to scholarships for students attending the Baltimore City University. Morgan State was also given $1 million dollars last month by Bank of America to launch a jobs initiative to help students of color successfully enter the workforce after graduation.
Homecoming 2019, Courtesy of Morgan State University
MacKenzie Scott accelerated her giving in the last few months of 2020 due to the crushing impact of the coronavirus. In a blog post on the site Medium, Scott said she tasked a group of advisors to identify non-profits and other groups focusing on food insecurity, racial inequality, high poverty rates, and philanthropic need. Easterseals, Goodwill, Y.W.C.A., and Feeding America food banks are just some of the organizations that received funds.
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