Scott Gives Away Billions. She Once Had to Borrow $1K

MacKenzie Scott, one of the world's wealthiest women and most influential philanthropists, is now known for her "no strings attached" surprise donations. But, as a Princeton sophomore, she learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of generosity. Facing the prospect of dropping out if she couldn't come up with $1,000, Scott was crying when her roommate, Jeannie Tarkenton, found her and got her dad to loan Scott the money. "I would have given MacKenzie my left kidney," Tarkenton tells the AP. "Like, that's just what you do for friends."

Today, Scott's net worth is around $34 billion, according to Forbes—and in October, Scott wrote that Tarkenton's act is among the many personal kindnesses she has considered as she's donated more than $19 billion of the wealth she amassed, mostly through Amazon shares as part of her 2019 divorce from company founder Jeff Bezos. And when Tarkenton started Funding U, a lending company offering last-gap, merit-based loans to low-income students without co-signers, Scott said she jumped at the chance to help.

A quarter-century passed between the end of their sophomore year and Funding U's creation, a period when Tarkenton realized just how many more students were being pushed into her ex-roommate's position by rising college costs. That Scott took an interest in her old friend's mission to help economically disadvantaged students finance school is unsurprising. Her unusual gifts—which she rarely discusses outside of essays and a database on her website, Yield Giving—tend to focus on issues of equity, higher education, and economic security. The revelation of Scott's Funding U support, however, offers a new glimpse into her investments.

Scott, in many ways, resembled the exact students that Funding U seeks to serve. Tarkenton recalled the undergraduate Scott as a "hardworking student with very good grades" who was "highly focused." In an Oct. 15 essay about the ripple effects of kindness, Scott described the Funding U loans as "generosity- and gratitude-powered." And the full circle impact of Tarkenton's college-era loan? "It's a really lovely story in a time when we're not seeing a lot of kindness and generosity," says Gabrielle Fitzgerald, founder of the social impact nonprofit Panorama. "And just a reminder that helping your fellow humans is both a good thing to do at the time and something that could have a massive impact down the road." More here.