MacKenzie Scott, who cites Toni Morrison as an early mentor from her Princeton years, has directed more than $1.2 billion to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) since 2019 and donated $7.1 billion to nonprofits in 2025 alone. Scott’s grants are largely unrestricted, giving recipient institutions wide latitude in spending. Her donations have funded endowments, faculty chairs and operational support — for example, a Toni Morrison Endowed Chair at Howard University — and represent a major private funding stream for Black higher education at a moment when other major tech philanthropy has scaled back support for DEI initiatives.