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MacKenzie Scott
June 16, 2021
Maine Community Foundation, Yarmouth music group receive $4M from MacKenzie Scott
By William Hall
Author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has made another series of huge charitable contributions, including a total of $4 million to two Maine arts nonprofits.
The Maine Community Foundation’s Expansion Arts Fund received $2.5 million, and a music education organization in Yarmouth, 317 Main Community Center, received $1.5 million.
In a blog post Tuesday, Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, announced contributions totaling $2.74 billion to 286 “high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked.”
The Expansion Arts Fund supports Indigenous, ethnic or rural arts programs or projects in Maine, particularly those that serve areas with limited access to arts events. 317 Main provides instruction and other musical programming for people of all ages and abilities, through outreach in 40 Maine communities.
Jewett graduated in 1994 from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in South Paris.
Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and has an estimated net worth of $60 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
In 2019, she signed the Giving Pledge, a project that encourages billionaires to promise to give away at least half of their wealth throughout their lifetime. Founded in 2010 by Warren Buffett, other signers include Bill and Melinda Gates, Elon Musk and Michael Bloomberg.
In December, Scott announced donations totaling over $4.1 billion to 384 organizations nationwide. They included three in Maine: Coastal Enterprises Inc., the Good Shepherd Food Bank and Goodwill of Northern New England.
On Tuesday, the two new Maine recipients expressed their gratitude.
“This gift will more than double our annual grant budget,” said the Expansion Arts Fund’s manager, Maine Community Foundation Senior Program Officer Leslie Goode, in a news release. “In recent years, we have been able to award grants to about half of the deserving proposals, so this will be a boost to those organizations whose good work and ideas would otherwise go unfunded.”
In a social media post, 317 Main said, “This gift is testament to the hard work of our people and our partners and further highlights the fact that music and the arts can play a critical roll in connecting and strengthening our communities. We are honored to be included on this list!”
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