MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving backs Native education with $70M grant

What's the deal? The American Indian College FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has received a $70 million unrestricted grant from Yield GivingDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the philanthropic vehicle of MacKenzie ScottDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. It is the Denver-based nonprofit's second gift from the foundation in five years and its largest to date.

Where the money goes: The College Fund built a seven-year plan around the gift, allocating $20 million to a designated endowment. The rest funds tribal college scholarships, student wellness, career pathways, internships, and faculty and institutional capacity at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs).

Why now? The grant lands amid what the College Fund calls chronic underinvestment in Indian Country. Less than 1% of US philanthropic spending serves Native communities, and only 16% of American Indian and Alaska Native adults hold a bachelor's degree, compared with 33% nationally, per US Census data cited in an August report from the College Fund and Brookings.

What they're saying: "We built this plan by listening first," said Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and chief executive officer of the College Fund. "By pairing scholarships with culturally relevant support programs and institutions, Native students graduate and enter careers to serve their communities."

By the numbers: The grant ranks near the top of its field — in roughly the 99th percentile of US education grants over the past four years, against a sample of 585 rounds. College Fund research shows its scholars graduate and enter careers at 1.5 times the rate when given support beyond scholarships.

The signal: Scott's unrestricted, flexible gift is part of a wider wave of large donations to Native higher education — United Tribes Technical College reported a $22 million gift in January, and Red Lake Nation CollegeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → announced $7 million in April. The scale matters for TCUs with few resources for long-term planning; the open question is how the College Fund turns a one-time windfall into sustained benefits for students and institutions.

Read more: pr.lakeoconeebreeze.net

Image credit: The American Indian College Fund