MacKenzie Scott supports child mentors with $44 million gift

By THALIA BEATY
Associated Press

LANCASTER, Ca. (AP) — Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $44 million to the Oregon-based mentoring organization, Friends of the Children, which supports children at risk of entering the welfare system by pairing them with a longtime mentor. The unrestricted gift, announced Thursday, provides $15 million to the organization’s national headquarters and splits $29 million in direct donations to 12 of the organization’s chapters from Tampa Bay to Detroit to Los Angeles. Terri Sorensen, the CEO of Friends of the Children, said Scott told intermediaries she chose the organization in hopes more people would learn about its work. The gift, the largest in the organization’s history, nearly doubles its 2022 budget.