Mat-Su Health Foundation receives $15 million donation

The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) announced it has received a one-time unrestricted gift in the amount of $15 million from philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott.

“This donation came as a huge surprise since it was unsolicited,” said MSHF Board Chair, Lebron McPhail. “We are grateful for this generous gift from Ms. Scott. It’s meaningful recognition of the work we are doing to improve the way systems work for Mat-Su residents and to eliminate the underlying causes of health inequities. We share this honor with the health and human services nonprofits in Mat-Su that continue to innovate and provide supports to Mat-Su residents and communities so they can thrive.”

The MSHF provides educational, community, and support grants to help improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su Borough, focusing on healthy aging, healthy families, healthy minds, healthy future, and a healthy foundation.

Last year, the MSHF contributed over $13 million in health and human services grants, and another $2 million in academic and scholarships. The Foundation plans to award nearly $17 million in grants and scholarships this year.

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is a writer in her own right, and now one of the richest women in the world, with a net worth of $65.3 billion. She has made it a pursuit to give most of her wealth back to various charities and foundations throughout the world. In her blog in 2021, Scott wrote, “I pledged to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.”

In 2021, Scott gifted the Alaska Native Heritage Center with a multi-million dollar donation.

MSHF President and CEO Elizabeth Ripley expressed gratitude for the unexpected donation, saying in a statement,

“While it’s too soon to identify specific uses for the money, we are committed to re-granting these dollars in alignment with our theory of change, which calls for us to be data-driven, strategic, and community-drive,” she said.

Ripley said that the donation comes as the Mat-Su 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) nears completion.

“The CHNA is a large research project that includes significant community input to help identify and prioritize local health concerns. Our philanthropy team and Board of Directors will use data from the report to inform future spending decisions supported by this large donation.”

The MSHF previously produced a CHNA in 2019 and has been working on the effecting the eight identified goals since publishing the report. Some of those goals include economic stability, excellent mental health, affordable and accessible healthy recreation and preventative care, safe and healthy relationships, and strong social connections.

The donation is the largest one-time gift the MSHF has ever received.

Ripley wrote in the release that the assessment will help “inform future spending decisions supported by this large donation.”

MSHF also continues to grow programs like Connect Mat-Su, which provides information, referrals, and supports to individual residents, and the R.O.C.K. Mat-Su community partnership, which aims to reduce child maltreatment and promote family resilience.