MacKenzie Scott makes $2.5 million donation to Colorado Springs charter school

Nov. 16—A small public charter school that primarily enrolls minorities from poor families in southeast Colorado Springs has dropped onto the radar of powerhouse American philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

The novelist and former spouse of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has donated $2.5 million to Atlas Preparatory School.

It's an "unprecedented" gift, said the school's Executive Director Brittney Stroh, one that will forever change the educational environment of its kindergarten through high school students.

"We are in the process of evaluating our future priorities, so the timing of this gift is incredibly fortunate," she said. "It gives us more choices on how we can continue to fulfill our mission and serve our community."

The unexpected donation is the largest in the school's 23-year history, Stroh said.

And she doesn't know how it happened.

The school did not apply for a grant or other funding from Scott's foundation, Stroh said.

Out of the blue, she received an email from Scott's "Giving Team" a few weeks ago, saying they wanted to schedule a phone call.

During the conversation, "They said they wanted to make a one-time, unrestricted donation," Stroh said.

When she asked how Atlas Prep came to the attention of Scott's charitable work, members of the team told her they couldn't share much but said the school was selected "through their trusted sources and vetting process."

Atlas Prep will start an endowment with the money, Stroh said. School leaders believe that such a use will help fulfill Scott's mission of finding trustworthy organizations doing important work in their communities and that know how to create the largest impact with the funds.

The school will spend a portion of the interest generated annually from the investment to "support student and staff experiences," Stroh said.

Those include taking high school students on college field trips across the country — which the school has been doing but some students need assistance with travel expenses — providing enrichment trips for all ages and paying for training and development programs for teachers.

The funding will help the school "advocate for students to have the life changing experiences their wealthier peers assume access to," according to Stroh.

"Scott's investment in this community will have a profound impact on Atlas's ability to create the best environment and experiences for students," she said.

Scott was identified in September as the third-wealthiest woman in the United States, having an estimated net worth of $33.4 billion.

Forbes magazine last year named her one of the world's most powerful women, and in 2020 she made the list of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People.

In 2019, Scott joined the Giving Pledge, a nonbinding commitment to give away the majority of her fortune to charitable organizations.

She announced her latest round of $2 billion in giving to 343 organizations on Monday, in a blog post. In the past seven months, Scott wrote that she has given $1.99 billion to "343 organizations supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities."

She has focused on distributing money to "organizations with strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates and low access to philanthropic capital," according to a 2020 blog post from Scott.

Other Colorado recipients in this week's giveaway include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado, the Girl Scouts of Colorado and Rocky Mountain Preparatory School, which has three campuses in Denver and one in Aurora.

Atlas Prep started in 2009 with 80 fifth graders, under a charter authorization from Harrison School District 2. The school has expanded to include a middle school, a high school and a new elementary school that opened two years ago.

About 90% of the school system's 1,234 students in the 2021-22 academic year qualified for the federal government's free or reduced lunch program, indicating household poverty, and 96% of its student body identified as minorities last year, according to statistics from the Colorado Department of Education.

The school emphasizes post-graduate success through apprenticeship programs, college, the military or the workforce. Educational excellence, character development and community engagement are its primary pillars.

Atlas Prep posted Harrison D-2's second-highest overall graduation rate of 85.4% in 2020-21, according to state data. Of graduating students, 98% of females and 69.2% of males completed high school in four years.