Blackfeet Community College Receives Record Gift of $8 Million from MacKenzie Scott
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has now given philanthropic gifts to four of Montana’s seven tribal colleges. She previously gifted Blackfeet Community College $3 million in 2020.
By Mariah Thomas
Blackfeet Community College announced Monday it received a “transformational” gift of $8 million from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos. The gift is the largest of its kind in the college’s history.
“This gift is coming at the perfect time for the college,” Blackfeet Community College President Brad Hall said in a press release. “MacKenzie Scott’s gift is evidence of the continuous hard work of the college employees and Board of Trustees, who every day intentionally seek to engage more with our community, connect student success-wellness, and work collectively to establish new programs that reflect the demonstrated needs of our ‘Universal Community’ as we advance our vision to strengthen and enrich our Blackfeet Nation and universal community through quality education integrating the Nii-tsi-ta-pi World of Knowledge.”
The release stated her gift will “provide more student scholarships, increase support for employees, enhance the campus infrastructure, expand current endowment, and sustain the college’s current strategic plan in furtherance of fulfilling its mission.”
Blackfeet Community College celebrated its 50th anniversary as an institution in 2024. The school has served both as a center of education and Blackfeet tradition, preserving the tribe’s history and language. In recent years it has also increased its focus on career education through innovative workforce programs. The school had 323 enrolled students in the fall of 2024.
In an interview with the Beacon Monday afternoon, Hall said the board is still deciding exactly where the funding will be spent. The school hopes the donation will attract other investors and donors, particularly as it gears up to create a new master plan to continue growing the college in the future. Its website boasts a new tab including donor resources and information about where and how donations can be used.
Scott and Bezos split in January 2019. Scott received 4% of Amazon’s shares in the divorce — a sum of around $36 billion. In May of 2019, Scott joined the Giving Pledge, a promise from some of the world’s wealthiest philanthropists to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetime or will.
“We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand,” Scott wrote. “In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”
Her approach to philanthropy has largely been to give unrestricted gifts. Scott’s $8 million gift to Blackfeet Community College is also unrestricted. That means the funds she gives can be used at the school’s discretion.
She has donated to several tribal colleges around the country, now including four of Montana’s seven tribal institutions. Montana is the only state in the country to have a tribal college on each of its seven reservations. The announcement of the gift to Blackfeet Community College follows news last week that Scott donated $11 million to Fort Peck Community College.
Scott’s gifts to the schools come against the backdrop of a Trump administration proposal to cut funding for tribal colleges and institutions. The schools receive the majority of their funding from the federal government. The proposal, which originated earlier this summer, would have reduced operational funds for the institutions by around 90%. Tribal leaders and education advocates fought against the cuts, and they did not go into place. Still, for some, the proposal raised concerns about tribal colleges’ futures.
Hall said the donation isn’t so transformational that the school doesn’t still need those federal dollars. The difference between Scott’s donation and federal funds is that, thanks to the gift’s status as unrestricted, the school can put it toward a variety of needs that federal dollars might not be able to go towards.
Scott previously gave money to Blackfeet Community College, to the tune of $3 million in 2020. The school used her 2020 gift to set up an endowment fund, the first in the school’s history. Per Monday’s press release, that endowment now sits at $6 million.
In 2020, Scott also gave an undisclosed amount to Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Reservation, and donated $1 million to Chief Dull Knife College on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.