Billionaire MacKenzie Scott gives $1.5M to Minnesota Native wealth-building nonprofit

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given an unexpected $1.5 million donation to a Minnesota wealth-building nonprofit that works with Native families.

Leaders at the Minneapolis-based Mni Sota Fund, which provides financial planning education and mortgage lending to first-time Native homebuyers, aren’t sure how they got on Scott’s radar, Executive Director Kit Fordham said.

Scott, a billionaire, author and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given more than $177 million to 38 Minnesota organizations in the last four years as part of her 2020 pledge to donate a majority of her wealth over her lifetime.

“It’s one of those things you dream about as you’re seeing headlines of other people getting this funding. ... It’s so nice that it happened in reality,” Fordham said.

The gift comes at a key moment for the nonprofit, which is in the midst of a campaign to raise funds to build a headquarters, to have more lending capital available and to expand its team to have more capacity to serve more of the Native communities throughout Minnesota, Fordham said.

Minnesota’s vast homeownership gap particularly impacts Native Minnesotans. Just 47% of American Indians own their home in Minnesota, compared with 77% of white households, according to 2023 Minnesota Compass data.

So far this year, the Mni Sota Fund deployed loans totaling $2.3 million to 105 families. More than 40 families have attended first-time homebuyer classes this month.

If someone pointed Scott in the direction of the Mni Sota Fund, Fordham said he would love to know so he could thank them.

“It’s like that fairy-tale story, you think you could never get this big coveted gift without doing anything for it, or at least without applying for it, pursuing it hard. And then somebody knocks on your door one day with a check,” he said. “It’s fabulous.”