Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, who sold more than half her Amazon stake, gives $45 million to Trevor Project - the largest single donation in its 27-year history

In January 2026, The Trevor Project received a remarkable vote of confidence from one of the world's most prominent philanthropists.

MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, gave the LGBTQ+ youth organization $45 million — the largest single donation in its 27-year history.

The timing makes the gift particularly significant.


The Trevor Project has spent the past several years dealing with leadership changes, layoffs, financial pressures and the loss of federal funding for a specialized LGBTQ+ option on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Scott's latest donation is intended to help the organization strengthen its crisis services, improve its long-term financial sustainability and expand its work supporting LGBTQ+ young people.

For Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, the size of the gift came as a genuine surprise.

“I literally could not believe it and it took some time. I actually gasped,” Black said after learning about the donation.

MacKenzie Scott had donated to the organization before

This is not Scott's first investment in The Trevor Project.

She previously gave the organization $6 million in 2020, making the latest $45 million contribution more than seven times larger.

The donation also fits Scott's broader approach to philanthropy. Rather than directing charities toward specific projects, she has become known for giving large, often unrestricted grants and allowing nonprofit leaders to determine how the money can have the greatest impact.

In 2025, Scott gave more than $1.7 billion to organizations working across a wide range of causes.

Her approach is unusual partly because some of her grants can be larger than the recipient organization's entire annual budget.

The $45 million arrives after a difficult period

The Trevor Project's latest gift comes after a particularly challenging period for the nonprofit.

In July, the Trump administration ended federal support for the specialized LGBTQ+ option on the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, a program staffed by The Trevor Project. The organization lost about $25 million in funding as a result.

The Trevor Project continues to operate its own independent crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ young people, which reaches roughly 250,000 young people each year.

It had also served another roughly 250,000 callers through the 988 Press 3 option designed specifically for LGBTQ+ youth.

The organization responded to the funding loss by launching an emergency fundraising campaign. That effort has raised approximately $20 million, a sign that donors remained willing to support the organization even as its federal funding disappeared.

Black suggested that Scott's team may have viewed that response as evidence of the nonprofit's resilience.

Why the hotline matters

The loss of the federal program has made The Trevor Project's independent services even more important, according to Scott Bertani, director of advocacy at the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health.

Bertani said the organization's services address needs that general crisis lines may not be equipped to handle, particularly among young people dealing with identity-based stress, isolation or rejection.

The scale of the need is enormous.

The Trevor Project estimates that about 1.8 million LGBTQ+ young people in the United States seriously consider suicide each year. Its work also extends beyond the U.S. and includes Mexico, while its online social network, TrevorSpace, serves LGBTQ+ young people globally.

The organization estimates that 40 million LGBTQ+ young people worldwide seriously consider suicide each year.

Even with its existing programs, The Trevor Project can reach only a fraction of those who may need help.

The organization has also faced its own growing pains

The $45 million donation comes after a period of rapid expansion and internal turbulence.

According to the nonprofit's public tax filings, its budget grew from roughly $4 million in 2016 to more than $83 million in 2023.

Its board removed its CEO in 2022, and the organization has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs, including another round in July.

Black acknowledged that the organization is now considerably smaller.

The Trevor Project's 2026 budget is about $47 million, compared with the much larger budget it operated with previously.

“We are a smaller organization than we were before,” Black said, adding that the organization intends to be more deliberate about future growth and what that growth should mean.

That history makes Scott's latest gift particularly interesting. The $45 million donation is almost as large as the organization's entire 2026 budget.

Can a huge unrestricted donation actually help?

Large donations can create their own challenges for nonprofits, particularly organizations that have grown rapidly.

Thad Calabrese, a New York University professor specializing in nonprofit financial management, has noted that rapid expansion can create financial difficulties when an organization's revenue model changes or funding sources become unstable.

Public funding, for example, can appear highly reliable until political priorities change.

The question for a nonprofit receiving a huge gift is therefore not simply how to spend it, but how to use the money without recreating the problems that accompanied previous growth.

Research into Scott's giving has generally found that fears surrounding large unrestricted grants — including concerns about misuse or unsustainable expansion — have not materialized to the extent some might expect.

Elisha Smith Arrillaga, vice president of research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, has suggested that Scott's extensive vetting process may be one reason her large gifts have generally worked as intended.

She compared the philosophy, broadly, to an investor continuing to back a company because they believe in what it can ultimately achieve despite setbacks.

Scott's philosophy is different from traditional philanthropy

Scott has been unusually open about why she prefers this approach.

In an essay discussing her 2025 giving, she argued that society may underestimate the value of giving without conditions, particularly when the benefits are difficult to measure financially.

Her philosophy effectively turns the conventional donor-recipient relationship on its head.

Instead of telling an organization exactly what project to fund, she gives its leaders the resources and autonomy to decide where the money can do the most good.

For The Trevor Project, that autonomy could be particularly valuable at a moment when its traditional funding model has been disrupted.

The organization plans to use the $45 million to strengthen crisis services, improve sustainability and accelerate its broader mission. It also expects to continue relying on donations to support its 24/7 crisis services, technology, research and advocacy work.

What the $45 million really represents

On paper, Scott's gift is simply another enormous philanthropic donation.

But for The Trevor Project, it represents something more consequential: a major funder choosing to invest in an organization after a period of upheaval rather than walking away from it.

Black described the second gift from Scott as a powerful validation of the organization's mission and called it part of its “turnaround story.”

And that may ultimately be the most interesting part of Scott's philanthropy.

Her approach isn't simply about giving away billions of dollars. It is about deciding which organizations are worth trusting with that money — and sometimes doubling down on them when circumstances become difficult.

For The Trevor Project, the $45 million arrives at precisely such a moment.