Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, recently cut down her stake at the company by nearly 50% to donate to charities. A report claims that the billionaire philanthropist donated millions of dollars to a funding network that supports organisations now facing FBI and congressional investigations over alleged ties to Hamas. In 2025, Scott reportedly donated $5 million, and in 2021, $10 million, to the Solidaire Network through her charity, Yield Giving. The network describes itself as connecting social movements with donors to build systems based on love and justice.However, Solidaire Network has funded groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), according to tax records and press releases reviewed by Fortune. Both organisations are under investigation by the House and Senate for allegedly working with the terror group Hamas to organise anti-Israel protests in the United States.The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent a letter to AMP’s executive director in May 2024 expressing concern that groups spreading pro-Hamas messages and breaking laws on college campuses may be receiving money from sources supporting Hamas or other terrorist organisations.US Senator Tom Cotton also asked the FBI in September 2025 to investigate the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), calling it hateful toward Jewish people after its leader, Aisha Nizar, urged supporters to disrupt the US F-35 fighter jet supply chain, the report noted.In a statement (shared by Fortune), Cotton said, “Nizar’s statements constitute direct incitement of violence against U.S. national security interests by advocating for actions against the men and women who build the F-35 and seeking to imperil the delivery of one of the nation’s most strategic assets.”Scott donated more than $7 billion in 2025 alone, bringing her total giving since 2020 to $26 billion across over 2,700 donations. With a net worth of about $40 billion, mostly from her divorce settlement, she ranks among the world’s biggest donors alongside Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett. Most of her 2025 donations supported diversity programmes, disaster relief, and colleges.
What the Solidaire Network said about MacKenzie Scott’s donations
It’s important to note that the Solidaire Network also funds other progressive groups working on racial and gender equality, climate change, and economic fairness. Scott was also just one of more than 280 people who donated to Solidaire Network in 2021.“Funding social movements while transforming our own relationship to wealth is clearly the way to go for philanthropy. MacKenzie’s generous, no-strings-attached gift honours our bold ambitions for our collective work,” the Solidaire Network noted.Around that time, Solidaire Network had just given out multimillion-dollar grants through its Black Liberation Pooled Fund, Movement Protection Fund, and Movement Infrastructure Fund.As Scott’s donations have no restrictions, which means the receiving organisation can spend the money however it chooses, there’s no proof that her 2021 or 2025 gifts went directly to SJP or AMP.On January 30, 2024, Solidaire Network also announced it started a Unity & Power Fund to support the “movement for a permanent ceasefire and against Islamophobia and antisemitism.” SJP and AMP mainly focus on “Palestinian freedom” and firm opposition to Israel.“We need more philanthropic partners to show up during these flashpoints, and we also need their longer-term support to grow and sustain our work beyond this crisis moment. We are only able to do this work because of the multi-year funding we have received through committed partners like Solidaire Network,” Stacey Krueger of Palestine Legal said in a statement.While some people have criticised Scott’s donation to Solidaire Network, she’s widely recognised as one of the most impactful charitable donors in recent years. She’s made a real difference for diversity-focused organisations and groups working on higher education, veterans’ issues, social justice, disaster relief, and climate change. For example, Scott gave $80 million to Howard University last fall, and the school said the gift came at an “opportune time” as the US government shutdown delayed annual federal money the university receives to support students, academic programs, research, and hospital operations.Scott has also said her giving was inspired by her college roommate, who lent her $1,000 so she wouldn’t have to quit school, and her dentist, who gave her free dental work after seeing her use denture glue to fix a broken tooth in college.In a blog post from December 2025, Scott wrote, “Generosity and kindness engage the same pleasure centres in the brain as sex, food, and receiving gifts, and they improve our health and long-term happiness as well. The peace-fostering byproducts of one unexpected act of kindness toward a stranger of a different background or beliefs might inspire a beneficial chain reaction that goes on for years.”
