By THALIA BEATY, Associated Press

The author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott revealed $7.1 billion in donations to nonprofits in 2025 Tuesday, marking a significant increase in her annual giving from recent years.

Writing in an essay on her website, Scott said, “This dollar total will likely be reported in the news, but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year.”

Scott acknowledged donating $2.6 billion in 2024 and $2.1 billion in 2023. The gifts this year bring her total giving since 2019 to $26.3 billion.

Scott’s donations have captured the attention of nonprofits and other charitable funders because they come with no strings attached and are often very large compared to the annual budgets of the recipient organizations. Forbes estimates Scott’s net worth at $33 billion, most of which comes from Amazon shares she received after her 2019 divorce from company founder Jeff Bezos.

Related Articles

FBI adds true crime TV producer to Most Wanted list for loan fraud tied to phony heiress story

Man who says religious group beat him wants prosecutor removed after long wait for retrial

UN agency reports rise in violence against women journalists and activists linked to online abuse

About 400 immigrant children were detained longer than the recommended limit, ICE admits

Georgia O’Keeffe’s views of the New Mexico desert will be preserved with conservation plan

With the exception of an open call for applications in 2023, it is not possible to apply for her funding nor to reach her directly, as Scott maintains no public facing office or foundation. Organizations are usually notified through an intermediary that Scott is awarding them a donation with little prelude or warning.

In advance of her announcement on her website, Yield Giving, more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities revealed they had received $783 million in donations from Scott so far this year, according to research from Marybeth Gasman, a professor at Rutgers University and expert on HBCUs.

“One of the things that I really admire about Mackenzie Scott is that she is like an equity machine,” Gasman said, especially at a time when efforts to promote equity in education have come under attack from the Trump administration. She also said Scott’s gifts to HBCUs this time are bigger than the round of donations she made in 2020.

Not all of the schools that previously had received funding from Scott received a gift this time and there were some first-time recipients as well. In total, Gasman has tracked $1.35 billion in donations from Scott to HBCUs since 2020.

In addition, UNCF, which is the largest provider of scholarships to minority students, received $70 million from Scott, and said it will invest the gift in a collective endowment it is building for participating HBCUs. Another $50 million went to Native Forward Scholars Fund, which had also received a previous gift from Scott and provides college and graduate scholarships to Native American students.

Unlike Scott’s gifts, most foundations or major donors direct grants to specific programs and require an application and updates about the impact of the nonprofit’s work. Scott does not ask grantees to report back about how they used the money.

Research from the Center for Effective Philanthropy in 2023 looked at the impact of Scott’s giving and found few of the recipients have struggled to manage the funds or have seen other funders pullback.

Kim Mazzuca, the CEO of the California-based nonprofit, 10,000 Degrees, said her organization was notified of its first gift from Scott of $42 million earlier this year.

“I was just filled with such joy. I was speechless and I kind of stumbled around with my words,” she said, and asked the person calling from Fidelity Charitable to clarify the donation amount, which is about double their annual budget.

10,000 Degrees provides scholarships, mentoring and other support to low-income students and aims to help them graduate college without taking on loans. Mazzuca said that usually nonprofits grow only gradually, but that this gift will allow them to reach more students, to test some technology tools and to start an endowment.

Mazzuca credited Scott for investing in proven solutions that already exist.

“She comes from a very deep, reflective space, very heartfelt,” Mazzuca said. “And she’s only providing these financial means as a tool for people to recognize they are who they’ve been waiting for.”

That idea references a prophecy from the Hopi Tribe that ends with the line, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Mazzuca said she’s drawn on the prophecy for years to empower both her organization and the students it supports to recognize their own power to shape our world.

In October, Scott posted an essay on her website under that title and sharing the prophecy. The essay, which she expanded upon in December to announce her giving, also reflects on how acts of generosity and kindness can ripple far afield and into the future. She cited her own experiences getting help while in college, including a dentist who repaired a tooth for free and her roommate who loaned her $1,000.

Scott now has invested in that same roommate’s company, which offers loans to students who would otherwise struggle to get financing from banks. The investments seem to be part of an effort Scott announced last year to move more of her money into “mission aligned” investments, rather than into vehicles that seek only the highest monetary returns.

In her 2025 essay, Scott seemed to urge people toward action, writing, “There are many ways to influence how we move through the world, and where we land.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Navy admiral who is retiring early from command of the campaign to destroy vessels allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela spoke to key lawmakers Tuesday as Congress seeks more answers on President Donald Trump’s mission, which, in one instance, killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of an initial strike.

The classified video call between Adm. Alvin Holsey, who will be retiring from U.S. Southern Command in the coming days, and the GOP chair and ranking Democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee represented another determined step by lawmakers to demand an accounting from the Department of Defense on the threats against Venezuela and the strikes, especially after a report that two survivors were killed during one operation in September.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declined to discuss the specifics of the call, but described Holsey as a “great public servant.”

Congress is also demanding that the Pentagon turn over unedited video of the strikes, as well as the orders authorizing the attacks, as part of its annual defense authorization bill. It was a sign of how the Sept. 2 strike, which legal experts say may have violated the laws governing how the U.S. military uses deadly force, has awakened the Republican-controlled Congress to its oversight role after months of frustration at the trickle of information coming to Capitol Hill from the Pentagon.

“There is a growing demand that everyone get a right in the Senate to see it,” said Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also declined to discuss specifics of the call with Holsey, describing it as “good.”

Wicker said that the Pentagon is weighing whether the video has “classified sections.”

Congressional leaders will also receive a wider foreign policy and national security briefing from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday afternoon.

“I plan to confront Secretary Hegseth on exactly what the hell is going on in the Caribbean,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the briefing.

Related Articles

What to know about the massive defense bill that seeks release of boat strike videos and more

About 400 immigrant children were detained longer than the recommended limit, ICE admits

Opponents of Trump-backed redistricting in Missouri submit a petition to force a public vote

Supreme Court questions limits on political party spending in federal elections, hearing GOP appeal

Trump says he’s fixing affordability problems. He’ll test out that message at a rally

Congress presses for more information

What lawmakers learn from Holsey could shed new light on the purpose and parameters of Trump’s campaign, which has struck 22 boats and killed at least 87 people since it started in September. Trump has also been making threats against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, sending a fleet of warships near the South American country, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

Holsey became the leader of U.S. Southern Command just over one year ago, but in October, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Holsey would be retiring early from his post. As commander of U.S. forces in the region, Holsey oversaw a command structure that has in recent years been mostly focused on building stability and cooperation across much of the region.

Trump’s drug boat campaign, however, has added a new, deadly dynamic to its mission. Rather than trying to interdict drug-carrying vessels, as forces like the U.S. Coast Guard have traditionally done, the Trump administration asserts that the drugs and drug-smugglers are posing a direct threat to American lives. Officials say they are applying the same rules as the global war on terror to kill drug smugglers.

Republicans have mostly stood behind the overall campaign, but Democrats say that the logic underpinning it is deeply problematic.

“They are using expensive, exquisite American military capabilities to kill people who are the equivalent of corner dealers and not making progress interdicting the trafficking by the cartels,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat.

Lawmakers are also questioning what intelligence the military is using to determine whether the boats’ cargo is headed for the U.S. As they have looked closer at the Sept. 2 strike, lawmakers learned that the destroyed boat was heading south at the time of the attack and that military intelligence showed it was headed toward another vessel that was bound for Suriname.

Still, it remains to be seen whether the Republican-controlled Congress will push back on the Trump administration’s campaign.

“I want a full set of data to draw my conclusions from,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who had previously demanded accountability after it was revealed that two survivors had been killed.

Trump this week justified the strike by claiming that the two suspected drug smugglers were trying to right the part of the boat after it had capsized in the initial attack. However, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the special operations commander who ordered the second strike, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing last week that he ordered the second strike to ensure that the cocaine in the boat could not be picked up later by cartel members.

War powers resolution vote

A group of senators — three Democrats and one Republican — is also preparing to force a vote on legislation as soon as next week that would halt Trump’s ability to use military force against Venezuela directly without congressional approval.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who is sponsoring the legislation, said that after reading the classified legal opinion from the Department of Justice that underpins boat strikes, he had “deep skepticism about the legality of any of these operations.”

The senators have already tried unsuccessfully to pass a similar resolution, but almost all Republicans voted against it. However, the senators say there is renewed interest from GOP lawmakers amid the Trump administration’s increasing threats against Venezuela, as well as scrutiny on the strike that killed survivors.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who is also sponsoring the legislation, called for a public hearing from Holsey. He argued that the laws governing when it is legal to fire on shipwrecked troops also protect American soldiers who are caught in the same situation.

“These follow on strikes of people who are wounded in the ocean is really against our code of military justice,” he said. “They are illegal.”

The Gophers’ second-leading rusher, Fame Ijeboi, plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens in January.

During his redshirt freshman year in 2025, Ijeboi of Folcroft, Pa., rushed for 461 yards on 97 carries and scored two touchdowns across 11 games. He stepped in more when starter Darius Taylor was injured.

Since the end of the regular season, the Gophers have had 10 total players announce plans to enter the portal on Jan. 2, and Ijeboi is now the biggest contributor to express interest in leaving the U.

Taylor was Minnesota’s leading rusher last year and will be entering his senior season in 2026. The junior starter put up 572 yards on 119 carries and three touchdowns in nine games. The Detroit native missed three games and was limited for others, which created more opportunities for Ijeboi in 2025.

The Gophers are expected to bring back tailback A.J. Turner in 2026, head coach P.J. Fleck said last week. Turner, a transfer from Marshall, had 16 carries for 64 yards and one touchdown before suffering a season-ending injury in the 27-14 loss to California on Sept. 14. He was No. 2 on the depth chart before his apparent knee injury.

The Gophers’ incoming class includes three running backs, headlined by four-star recruit Ryan Estrada of El Paso, Texas, along with three-star prospects Zeke Bates of Malvern, Pa., and Niko Castillo of Schuylkill Haven, Pa.

Senior backup Cam Davis, a transfer from Washington, will run out of eligibility after this year. He had 34 carries for 117 yards and two TDs in the regular season.

True freshman Grant Washington added 21 carries for 133 yards last season, mostly in blowout games. Fellow true freshman Tre Berry left the program in November, while true freshman Xavier Ford remains on the team.

Related Articles

Gophers next? Minnesota Duluth TE Luke Dehnicke making jump to DI

Gophers football: P.J. Fleck shares why he fired U’s defensive line coach

Gophers football: New Mexico will be a challenge in the Rate Bowl

Gophers likely bowl destination: Rate Bowl in Phoenix

Gophers dismiss defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter