Where Did MacKenzie’s Billions Get Donated? (news)

Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast

Nonprofitnewsfeed.com

Scott Releases Comprehensive List Grant Recipients

MacKenzie Scott has released a comprehensive database of all the nonprofit organizations that have received grants from her over the past several years. Scott has in many ways upended the philanthropy sector with the sheer volume and size of the grants, as well as their “no strings attached” nature. The database denotes the name of the organization, the size of the gift, and the organization’s focus area, geographic location, and stated mission statement. The new website’s “Process” page hints at the potential for future open calls for prospective grant recipients. According to reporting from The Guardian, the donations totalled over $14 billion and were disbursed to over 1,600 nonprofit organizations.

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Summary

• 22 Most Charitable Companies in 2022 | Yahoo
• When Nonprofit Health Care Behaves Badly: The Case For Mission ... | healthaffairs.org
• Big Tech Laid Off Thousands. Here’s Who Wants Them Next | WIRED
• Common Man For Ukraine delivers presents to 1,300 orphans | WMUR Manchester

Transcript

[00:00:00] This week on the nonprofit news feed. Well, we're talking about a big release by Mackenzie Scott. She's been giving away money now she's giving away data, a comprehensive database actually, of all of the nonprofits. So we'll jump into that. And also we had, uh, our, our end of year celebrations at Whole Whale.

[00:00:45] And there's an internal video that Nick put together where he is a washed up British rock. Talking about a success. They, they definitely took the whole well adage of taking it too far and making it way too hilarious. Um, we can't release any of it, but if you worked here, you'd see. Uh, impetus to, to keep us on your, your, your job postings, uh, going into the new year.

[00:01:07] Should we be hiring? Yes. Uh,

[00:01:10] video is released. Super fun. I got to live out my alter ego being a washed up British rocker for our annual holiday music video. Here's what I'll say. If you leave us a review and then you message me, I will share that video with you cuz it is unlisted on. I feel like that's, I think that's a fair trick.

[00:01:30] Cool. It is chaotic, good , chaotic, festive, let's say , chaotic, festive. Um, I, I agree. Amazing. Well, we, in the spirit of giving and festivities and holidays and all that, our top story is of course Mackenzie Scott releasing a comprehensive list of grant recipients. So, Mackenzie Scott has started a new website, yield giving.com, and the website essentially serves.

[00:02:06] Just kind of like a, a holding a place to hold all the information about the recipients of Scott's Enormous generosity over the past couple years. So a downloadable database of all the organizations that have received money from Mackenzie Scott. So it's estimated that Don. On this list totaled over 14 billion and were dispersed to over 1600 nonprofits.

[00:02:36] The donations and grants were no strings attached in nature, and the database denotes the name of the organization, the size of the gift, and the organization's focus area, geographic location, and mission statement. So we are getting. Full and total transparency from Mackenzie Scott on where those donations are going.

[00:02:59] and important to note on the website's process page where they talk about how they found these donations. There is a hint at an open call for grant recipients, um, at some kind of process that organizations going forward might be able to apply for grants. Um, that seems to be an in the works type thing.

[00:03:20] But it is the first time that Mackenzie Scott has hinted at an open. Tight scenario. So George, this is, this is big news and we, we started going through that spread list and you see this like never ending list and these donations, it's not $500, it's not $10,000. It's all of them are getting millions of dollars, or at least most of them.

[00:03:43] It's crazy. Yeah. It's refreshing to see. Transparency there. I mean, technically speaking you can, um, sort of back into information like this using, you know, tools like cause iq.com where you can track who's given what. Uh, cuz these things have to be disclosed on nine 90 s. It's just a different. Ability though to sort of pop it out into a C S V and be able to look at it and, and get an idea of it, you know, top things in here.

[00:04:13] I was looking down the list. Um, one of the top recipients in 2020 was actually our IP medical debt who is on our, you know, on our list of, uh, podcast participants. You know, planned Parenthood is is up there with 50 million. Uh, they were a past client of ours, so I was like, oh, kind of, you know, happy to, to look through and see that many of the folks that we.

[00:04:35] actually worked with, um, our are on this list volunteer match, um, is a past client. And you can see just, you know, what's impressive, I encourage you to go there and just like you get an idea of, to your point, it's not like, oh, here's like, you know, 10,000, 20,000 gifts. Like they're just row after row of millions of dollars being given.

[00:04:57] Right? Like that is, uh, something quite significant. , uh, for, for what you're, you know, able to achieve. And you know, it's not until you get to the very end where they're like, very few grants are like under a million dollars. Um, actually if I was on this list and I got less than a million, I'd be like, what the heck?

[00:05:15] why did I get less than a million? Um, but it's a reminder of that, the power of this level of wealth and. , you know, on the other side of that coin is like, you know, this could easily be spent the other direction, but, you know, I have a, a hard time finding a bad, bad, bad apple in the bunch and looking through the hundreds of organizations here.

[00:05:37] Yeah, George, I think that's a great takeaway. It's impactful to see all this disparate data that we might have been able to see just in one place really cleanly. you can download as a CSV and see all these amazing organizations there. Um, that presumably have been a vetted. Um, and yeah, it's just cool, cool to see that impact in one place spelled out so cleanly.

[00:06:06] But I can take us into our next story. And this is from Yahoo Finance, and it talks about the 22 most charitable companies. In 2022. It goes through some heavy hitters. You've probably heard of just about all the companies on this list, uh, Google, Starbucks, Walmart, alphabet. George. How seriously should we take this?

[00:06:30] Is this, is this a good thing? Is this a. E s g whitewashing situation. Are these real donations? What's, what's, what do we think of this list? Well, I mean, it's tis the season for lists. I also bring it up because I think your organization, obviously, if you haven't already, it may be a little too late, but there's still periods of time, I'd say that's stretched through January where you can create your top list of corporations, of people, of influencers, of whatever it may be that have done you.

[00:07:03] The most social impact in your, in your ecosystem. And so this is like at one level, it's like, look, it's Yahoo Fines writing an end of your article. Fine. But I'd also say that, you know, looking at companies being celebrated for doing the right thing in the right way, on the heels of, you know, what we just saw with C v cvs, which, you know, uh, we talked about in the other episode, um, is, is great to see.

[00:07:28] I, I do think. Social impact isn't just relegated to the domain of 5 0 1 It's, it's clear that, um, for-profit organizations need to stand out. I mean, am I, am I really celebrating that hard when I see, like Chevron make the top 10 here? Like maybe not or, you know, JP Morgan Chase? Not exactly. Being like the pinnacle.

[00:07:57] Offense, but like, you know, social, social impact, justice and investment. Uh, okay. Um, ExxonMobil making the list. So there's a little bit of e s g gaming, so take a look at the list. How would you write it? That's my question. I think that's, I think that's good framing. Uh, something of course to keep in mind this time of year.

[00:08:19] Um, but some good things for nonprofit leaders to think.

[00:08:23] All right. I'll take us into our next story. And honestly, this one ruffles my feathers, George. So you're ruffled last. I'm, I'm, I'm ruffled. Uh, The New York Times last week published a story titled How a Sprawling Hospital Chain ignited its own staffing Crisis. And it talks about a hospital chain, um, under the Ascension umbrella.

[00:08:51] Um, that is a hospital that serves approximately 6 million patients in the South and Midwest. It has revenue, yearly revenue of $15 billion. That rivals companies like General Mills and Gap. It is a non-for-profit hospital system, and in addition to its billions in cash, it runs an investment company that manages more than 41 billion in assets, and the chief executive of its wholly owned.

[00:09:23] Investment company made a salary of 13 million last year, and it's estimated from that article that because of its nonprofit status, ascension has avoided more than 1 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. That's the, the, the tax exempt work. Um, and in response to that, we have an article from health affairs.org that offers some framing and solutions of thinking about this problem.

[00:09:51] Um, Because our irrational health system, as it notes, allows mega hospital chains that operate under a nonprofit status, um, to, to really not put their, their patients first. It, it stems from, um, staffing crises, trying to squeeze out pennies, uh, during the, the Covid problem, uh, during the covid surge and a whole host of other problems.

[00:10:20] But you. Mega wealthy kind of bad actors in the nonprofit healthcare system. Um, this article offers some different approaches, um, that I'm quite frankly not knowledgeable enough to, to speak or even summarize, quite frankly. But George, why'd you throw this in here? And, and why do we keep talking on this podcast about nonprofit hospitals?

[00:10:45] What, what's the importance of, of that thread?

[00:10:47] This is under. Ongoing theme of brought to you by, just because it's a C3 doesn't mean it's doing good. 5 0 1 is a tax classification and clearly in this case, one that is saving a, um, an operating organization, billions of dollars. Uh, you know, when you're talking about, and it came up in this article, uh, staffing shortages, leaders of these organizations, of these hospitals and their boards bragging about how much they were able to.

[00:11:19] In, in overhead, not for mind you, the service of the patient or what's best in the health outcome, but mind you, in a reduction of staff and especially, and you know, as we're moving through a pandemic, it, it's, it's a real head scratcher in terms of saying like, how, how isn't there more scrutiny brought to bear?

[00:11:38] Also, you know, tactics. Intentionally obfuscate the 5 0 1 obligation of hospitals to actually cover in the case, um, medical bills that aren't able to be afforded by, um, low income clients that come through. And it is, you know, a part of the, you know, terrible jigsaw puzzle that makes up our, our healthcare system.

[00:12:02] But sad to. The nonprofit, uh, you know, name being pulled in, uh, to this overall brand. And so when you look at overall trust dropping in nonprofits, it is narratives like these that are, are really doing it, are really bringing it, uh, bringing it around. So I, I hope this type of article leads to oversight, scrutiny.

[00:12:23] And like, you know what is fine with me? Pay your taxes. That's okay. Right? Just lose your C3 status. Pay your taxes. You're gonna operate like a for-profit. You're gonna operate in the competi. Ecosystem where you're trying to get the most out of it. Like that's, that's America, that's fine. But I don't like the thought that our tax dollars are going to underwrite so that they can have a higher amount of money to then go turn their nonprofit into an investment vehicle.

[00:12:50] Yeah, I agree with that. Uh,

[00:12:53] Certainly a big problem. Healthcare in America, nonprofit hospital chain healthcare system. But, uh, hopefully that this amount of high profile articles, um, shines light on the problem. Alright, I can take us into our next story. And this one comes from wire.com and the title of this article is Big Tech Laid Off Thousands.

[00:13:19] Tier who wants them next? And the subtitle is government's, nonprofits and small startups hope to scoop up. People let go by the likes of Meta and Amazon. It's their big chance to learn top tier talent. Um, so the Article C sites, the sta, that nearly 1000 tech companies around the world have laid off more than 150,000 tech workers.

[00:13:39] This year. We've seen high profile layoffs from meta Amazon. Whatever it was that happened at Twitter. Um, and quite frankly, you now have high skill job seekers in the tech marketplace that now may be looking for stability, potentially lower pay , you know, it comes with the territory, but that governments, nonprofits, and other private sector industries that are looking for highly skilled tech workers, uh, this could be a good.

[00:14:12] To recruit these workers, um, during this kind of realignment of the tech sector. Uh, Yeah, not only that, um, increasingly you're seeing public opinion of major tech companies, uh, taking some heat, Twitter, taking heat, Facebook especially over the past couple years, Cambridge Analytica forward taking heat, and these workers might be primed to be looking for.

[00:14:42] Environmentally socially conscious type jobs, whether that be in the government, social impact sector, nonprofit sector. Um, so this article just kind of makes the case, um, that this is a golden opportunity for social impact folks to recruit.

[00:15:00] I think that's exactly right here and a great opportunity. because many of these folks that have been laid off actually do have fairly generous severance packages, you know, coming out of, uh, meta and others. You can actually go to a site layoffs, FYI, for a full breakdown of number of people laid off when it happened.

[00:15:25] And on top of that, there may be the opportunity of saying like, okay, if we know that there are people in our region or area that have these technical skills, like how are you? Selling and even amplifying the the potential need for not just frankly employees, but volunteers. Again, I note. Severance packages may cover these folks for, you know, 3, 6, 9 months depending on what that agreement looks like.

[00:15:50] There may be, uh, a new swath of volunteers, um, coming out as a net result of this. So, you know, what does your technical volunteering strategy plan promotion look like as you move into 2023? Not just, you know, clearly for, for hiring, in which case, you know, we, we always recommend Idealist dot. As a, you know, a solid place to be listing, uh, for at least nonprofit minded, uh, employees.

[00:16:19] And what's layoffs, layoffs.fyi. I know. Weird ending. But, um, it'll give you some charts and stats on, on what's going on. Yeah. Great. Great resource there. Go check them. All right, George. The time has come. How about a feel good story? Yeah. What have we. Okay, this one comes from W M U R nine A B C, local affiliate, and it talks about how an organization called the Common Man Family of Restaurants, um, has co-founded a nonprofit called Common Man for Ukraine.

[00:16:55] Um, and the nonprofit has delivered 1300 present. Two children in Ukraine this holiday season, along with 700 tons of food and 10,000 sleeping bags. Um, they, they have been visiting orphanages in Ukraine, of course, as the, the human tragedy of the conflict has now left kids, uh, orphaned. Um, and it says, the organization says they've raised 2.3 million in less than six months to support Ukrainian refugees and.

[00:17:30] this is amazing, right? Like those, the, the gift itself is almost not what matters. What matters is kids feel seen, they're allowed to feel joy amid, you know, insane circumstances and, uh, get a little, a little bump, a little support, a little, pick me up during an otherwise uh, trying year. , it's the season of giving.

[00:17:55] And, uh, cool to see a nonprofit stepping up and giving to kids who God knows need it the most.

[00:18:01] , it's an important reminder that we've got, uh, children in a war zone. And, , that's diametrically opposed to a season of giving an abundance and care. So the, , the fact that that's, that's occurring and giving, uh, an semblance of, uh, what the season's actually about, um, is good to see.

[00:18:22] And that's like, that's the work of nonprofits. Uh, you know, and, and sometimes you just, you know, like, oh, well, you know, shouldn't they be sending body armor? Sure. Right. Like, if that were the only focus. Um, but this is called, you know, working with empathy and realizing that, um, there are, uh, many people suffering and there's, uh, there's work to be done.

[00:18:45] So, uh, I like. Uh, all right, Nick, you know it's coming. , I, I know it's coming. Qu question, question for you. Um, how, how was the nonprofit camping fundraiser you went to?

[00:19:00] I'm not sure. How was the nonprofit camping fundraiser I went to? It was intense.

[00:19:07] Oh, brother . Oh my. That was good. That was good. Yeah. Yeah. Moderate. Uh, I, uh, I will say we're probably, we're, we're signing off. I don't know if we'll fit in another one of these before the end of the year. So I appreciate the, the time, uh, and working with you, Nick. Uh, happy holidays to you and yours. See you in the new.

[00:19:28] Happy holidays to you and your family in the new year. Thanks for a great year. Here comes 2023.