MacKenzie Scott has captivated observers with her approach to philanthropy — with the notable exception of Elon Musk, who implied that the billionaire philanthropist makes the world a worse place.

What makes Scott remarkable is not simply the total she has donated — more than $26 billion — but the extraordinary pace at which she has distributed it. The novelist and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos received roughly a 4% stake in Amazon as part of their 2019 divorce settlement, a fortune valued at the time at approximately $36 billion. She has disbursed the bulk of it over just a few years, a stark departure from the norms of billionaire giving.

Families holding more than $500 million in assets gave away approximately 1.2% of those holdings in 2017, according to research from the Bridgespan Group, a global consulting firm serving nonprofits and philanthropic organizations. When Bridgespan recalculated the figures for 2023, the percentage was virtually unchanged — even though those fortunes had been compounding at rates at or above the S&P 500's long-run average of roughly 9%. In other words, while the absolute dollar amount of charitable giving increased, the proportion of wealth donated remained static.

Bridgespan cofounder Jeffrey Bradach has dubbed this phenomenon "slow philanthropy." In an essay adapted from Bridgespan's research and published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review on Thursday, he argues that the actual giving of many ultra-wealthy individuals falls far short of the aspirations they publicly express. Those aspirations are sometimes formalized through Giving Pledge letters, but separate research indicates that signatories frequently fail to follow through.

Launched in 2010 by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the Giving Pledge invites the world's wealthiest individuals to commit at least half of their fortunes to charity. More than 240 billionaires from roughly 30 countries have signed on, but the initiative has no enforcement mechanism and no deadline for fulfilling the pledge.

The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has gone further, calling the Giving Pledge "unfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future."

"Three-quarters of the original U.S. Giving Pledgers who are still alive remain billionaires today," IPS stated. "They have collectively gotten far wealthier since they signed, while just eight of 22 deceased Pledgers fulfilled their pledges."

Prominent philanthropists such as Melinda French Gates have publicly challenged fellow billionaires for failing to honor their commitments.

"Have they given enough? No," French Gates said in an interview with Wired published in late 2025.

More recently, however, French Gates has praised Scott for both the pace and the philosophy of her giving. Speaking to Fortune's Most Powerful Women Editor Emma Hinchliffe, she noted that actions often speak louder than words in charitable work.

"I look back at the giving MacKenzie [Scott] has done in the last year," French Gates said. "Look at what she has said about historically Black colleges in the United States and the importance of them. People are maybe not always speaking about their grant-making, but boy, they are doing it behind the scenes."

Bradach singled out Scott as a standout figure — in the best sense — calling her "the most generous individual philanthropist of this century." What distinguishes Scott, he argues, is her fundamental mindset toward wealth.

Why Billionaire Philanthropy Tends to Stall

Bradach identifies several structural reasons why billionaire philanthropy typically moves at a sluggish pace. The first is that failure carries a heavier psychological weight in philanthropy than in investing.

"While a for-profit investor might celebrate a portfolio of ten investments that had two 'home runs,' five average performers, and three underperformers, donors rarely think about their philanthropy this way," he said.

As a result, donors frequently fixate on overhead and waste. Many struggle to delegate, with some major benefactors insisting on personally approving every grant despite having professional staff available to assist. Others underestimate the volume of capital a nonprofit can effectively deploy.

Scott, once again, represents an exception. She practices "trust-based philanthropy," Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, previously told Fortune. This approach entails minimal oversight of how funds are used — a method known as unrestricted giving.

"Unlike traditional funding processes that often involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements, her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues," Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, told Fortune in late 2024, after her organization received a $30 million gift from Scott.

For other philanthropists, however, the preoccupation with overhead often becomes a rationale for delay.

"Every nonprofit seeking support from a philanthropist is not just competing with other nonprofits, but with a donor's option to leave the money in the bank — and maybe give later," Bradach wrote. "In the absence of a forcing function, delay is costless to the donor and easy to rationalize."

Accelerating billionaire philanthropy is a formidable challenge. The channels through which philanthropic capital already flows freely — bequests, donor-advised funds, and the Giving Pledge — share a common trait: they separate the commitment to give from the decision about where the money ultimately goes, thereby lowering the barrier to acting. Donor-advised funds, which function much like charitable investment accounts allowing contributors to take an immediate tax deduction while deferring the actual distribution to nonprofits, held an estimated $250 billion in assets as of 2023. Charitable bequests, Bradach notes, reached a record $62 billion in 2025, outstripping the growth in contributions from living donors.

"Bequests sidestep many of the internal frictions that slow philanthropy," he wrote.

For Bradach, the deeper remedy for "slow philanthropy" lies in a fundamental shift of mindset — reviving what he calls "the gift," a form of giving grounded in generosity and moral obligation rather than metrics and return on investment. Scott, he observes, is the rare billionaire who describes her fortune as something to be given away, not merely managed.

"My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care," Scott wrote in her Giving Pledge letter signed in 2019. "But I won't wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty."