Norfolk State receives record $50M gift from MacKenzie Scott

Norfolk State University announced Thursday that philanthropist, billionaire and early Amazon contributor MacKenzie Scott has donated $50 million to the university — the largest gift in the school’s 90-year history.

The donation comes two weeks after Scott’s record-setting donation of $50 million to Virginia State University, the state’s other public historically Black university, or HBCU.

Norfolk State will use the unrestricted gift, Scott’s second eight-figure award to the university, to support student scholarships, faculty research, athletics and strategic initiatives. In 2020, Scott donated $40 million to NSU, its previous record donation.

The ex-wife of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, Scott was involved with the e-tail giant from its start, contributing to its original business plan and its first freight contract. She is a published author, and following her 2019 divorce from Bezos, she had $35.6 billion in Amazon stock and became one of the world’s wealthiest women.

In 2020, she made $30 million donations to Hampton University and Virginia State University.

The university, which announced the donation Friday, expects to add funds to an endowment to generate revenue for scholarships in perpetuity, and that scholarships will be awarded beginning in fall 2026.

The university says the gift “will catapult Norfolk State to its next level of excellence,” and President Javaune Adams-Gaston thanked Scott for the “enormous vote of confidence” she placed in the institution.

According to NSU spokesperson Stevelynn Adams, Scott’s first gift to the university was used to increase student scholarships, purchase property near the campus for expansion, establish faculty research and performance awards, and increase the school’s scholarship endowment. The university states that the new gift demonstrates a positive return on the 2020 investment.

Founded in 1935, NSU is a public university based in Norfolk. There are 6,557 students enrolled at the college this fall, comprising 5,828 undergraduates and 729 graduate students.