great scott!

4 San Antonio charities part of famed philanthropist's $4 billion endowment

MacKenzie Scott has donated billions to U.S. charities this year.

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images

Author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott (many know her as the former wife of Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos) has donated more than $4 billion to charities across the nation — including in San Antonio and across South Texas.

In a post on Medium, Scott notes that she and her advisers have disbursed some $4,158,500,000 in gifts to 384 organizations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. over the last four months. This is in effort to “accelerate my 2020 giving through immediate support to people suffering the economic effects of the crisis,” Scott writes.

Scott’s generosity includes San Antonio and South Texas organizations and groups:

Easterseals Rehabilitation Center, San Antonio
Goodwill Industries of San Antonio
United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County
YWCA San Antonio
Feeding the Gulf Coast
South Texas Food Bank

Scott also bestowed a record-breaking $50 million to Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Houston, the institution announced on December 15. The gift is the largest one-time endowment in the school’s 144-year history.

Under terms of the donation, the funds can be used at the discretion of the president to support the needs of the university, per a press release. Administrators have chosen to designate $10 million of the total to create the Panther Success Grant Program, an effort to assist juniors and seniors with unpaid balances created by the financial challenges posed by COVID-19, the school announced.

“This is a historic gift for Prairie View, coming at a time when the university had already decided and begun to invest heavily in key areas to strengthen its academic programs and improve student success,” said Ruth J. Simmons, president of Prairie View, in a statement. “The timing of this gift could therefore not be better.”

Simmons adds in a statement that she had been in contact with Scott “about a matter not involving Prairie View,” and thus was “stunned and, for a time speechless” when Scott’s assistant phoned and revealed the donation.

Other Texas organizations Scott donated to include:

Easterseals of Greater Houston
East Texas Food Bank
El Pasoans Fighting Hunger
Goodwill Houston
Goodwill Industries of Dallas
Goodwill Industries of East Texas
Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth
Heart of Texas Goodwill Industries
Meals on Wheels Central Texas
Meals on Wheels Montgomery County
Meals on Wheels North Central Texas
Southeast Texas Food Bank
Texas A&M International University
United Way of El Paso County
YMCA of Greater Houston
YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas
YWCA El Paso del Norte Region
YWCA Greater Austin
YWCA of Lubbock

celebrities charity colleges

SPARE ART

North San Antonio gets crafty with new creative supplies shop

Photo by Ismael Rodriguez.

Local nonprofit Spare Parts recently opened its brick-and-mortar center for creative reuse.

One local nonprofit organization has spent years getting environmental accountability and community education down to a fine art. And now it’s getting crafty with a new brick-and-mortar shop in North San Antonio aimed to help locals to go green.

Spare Parts was founded in 2010 by executive director and longtime arts educator Mary Elizabeth Cantú to provide a creative spark for area students and schools lacking arts funding and resources. Through a variety of educational programs, public art exhibitions, events, and the organization’s traveling Mini Art Museum, Spare Parts has enlightened thousands of students and San Antonians, all while fostering reuse practices and sustainability, a key tenet of the nonprofit.

Spare Parts’ latest endeavor is another artistic triumph. Its new center for creative reuse, located at 13451 Wetmore Rd., is nothing less than a crafter’s delight. The shop features an impressive array of “pre-loved” and price-reduced artsy merchandise — from paint supplies and paper crafts to sewing items, beading and jewelry, school and office supplies, vintage gadgets, and crafting kits — all of which has been rescued from area landfills.

Cantú notes that proceeds from the new Spare Parts’ shop will enable the organization to further increase creative and educational experiences for San Antonio students and families. But even more so, she hopes the shop will help locals embrace the concept that one person’s trash can be another’s artistic treasure.

“There really isn’t any more room in the world for this stuff. Buying pre-loved at places like Spare Parts or other stores is a way to reduce the amount of things [people] feel that they need,” Cantú said in a recent interview with the San Antonio Sentinel. “We’re challenging people to rethink things around them, buy pre-loved, and find a way to be creative in their lives.”

In the time of COVID-19, however, getting the creative juices flowing isn’t as simple as popping into the Spare Parts shop. Though the center for creative reuse is open, the store is currently offering only weekend curbside pickup of items ordered through its website. But crafters shouldn’t despair, as Spare Parts is offering private in-person shopping experiences in the new year, with the first planned for January 16 and 17.

jewelry shopping kids charity openings sustainability