HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scottis sharing her wealth in Virginia. Scott, 53, pledged to give away millions of dollars to nonprofits following her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Scott's Yield Giving Foundationannounced Wednesday that two Central Virginia-based nonprofits were among the 361 nationwide to either $1 million and $2 million in funding.
The Virginia Poverty Law Center will receive $1 million.
Executive Director Jay Speer said VPLC's aim is to provide legal assistance to people who face civil trouble, but cannot afford an attorney. He said they initially tried to provide a lawyer to every person in need, but found that was no longer feasible.
"So, we tried shifting to help lines where people can call and get advice from a lawyer on the phone," Speer said. "That was helpful, we reach more people, but then we decided we needed to take the next step, which is to try to do more self-help materials."
Speer said the $1 million will help with that next step -- creating an online database offering legal advice on various situations.
"What we're hoping is that, eventually, people will be able to, on their phone, find out answers to 'My landlord says I have to be out. Is that true?' And then, it's sort of a decision tree type thing where you answer a question that sort of gives you the next step, which might give you the answer or might take you to the next step to get to the answer," explained Speer.
Speer said work was proceeding on this database before they knew they had the grant money. He said it will launch in May with a focus on eviction help, but the funding will help them move faster and expand into more areas.
"We want to move into things like someone being sued for a debt, 'What can I do?' 'I've got family law issues.' All sorts of things like that."
The McShin Foundation will $2 million from Scott for its work helping people recover from substance use issues.
"I jumped up and down, I screamed, and ran and told my dogs," foundation CEO Honesty Liller said about her reaction to the email informing her of the grant. "This has been, like, a year almost in the making of waiting for the answer. And I always said when we get it, not if."
Liller said in her application, she focused on the work the foundation has been doing for almost 20 years.
"I just wrote about the magic that happens here every single day," she said. "Just helping that individual with addiction and substance use disorder the same day that they ask it. And I think the biggest thing is we're peer run and about 91% of our staff are alumni from our program."
Liller said McShin does not have concrete plans for how the money will be used, but has ideas she will present to McShin's board.
"We definitely want, in the future, to open another women and children's house and possibly single fathers with children down the road. Really, I think, we're going to just see what else we can do within this building and add more services," Liller said.
She added they will also look at buying more recovery homes, rather than renting them to allow for more beds for those that need them.
"Definitely help more humans with addiction," she said.
In 2020, Scott made a $30 million gift to Virginia State University. At the time, the historically Black university called it the "largest single donor gift" in the HBCU's 138-year history.
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