NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) - Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is donating $15 million to a Nebraska community college, the Sioux City Journal reported Sunday.
Scott’s gift is the largest ever to Northeast Community College, where according to the U.S. Department of Education about a quarter of students are from minority groups and 45% qualify for federal financial aid given to low-income students.
College President Leah Barrett said the school’s chief information officer initially thought the email about the donation was spam because gifts of that size to the school are so rare.
“I started to cry, and I couldn’t breathe,” Barrett told the newspaper. “Looking back at my notes, they are very shaky. I was overwhelmed.”
The previous largest donation to Northeast Community College was a $5 million gift from the Acklie Family Foundation to start a farm on campus.
Barrett said the school’s foundation board will make an endowment with Scott’s donation that will be used for scholarships and success initiatives.
Scott, the recently remarried philanthropist ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was one of the top philanthropists of 2020.
She donated $5.7 billion in 2020 by asking community leaders to help identify 512 organizations for seven- and eight-figure gifts, including food banks, human-service organizations, and racial-justice charities.
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