As CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Anne Marie Dougherty has encountered a lot of high-net-worth individuals and how they approach philanthropy. But few are like MacKenzie Scott, Dougherty told Fortune.
“She practices trust-based philanthropy,” Dougherty said of Scott, who donated $15 million to the veteran-focused nonprofit organization in 2022, and made a subsequent $20 million donation this fall. The $15 million gift was the largest in history at the organization, which was founded in 2006—the same year military reporter Bob Woodruff was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The foundation was cofounded by Woodruff and his family to provide support for injured service members, veterans, and their families.
With that initial $15 million gift, the Bob Woodruff Foundation was able to establish a three-year plan to invest an additional 20% each year for the past three years in programming.
“There were a couple things we did not do,” Dougherty explained. “We did not establish an endowment, we did not hire a bunch of people, we did not buy real estate, open up an office, anything like that. We just increased our grant making.”
This proved to be the “right choice” with how to spend Scott’s initial gift, Dougherty said, because it showed Scott’s organization, Yield Giving, the Bob Woodruff Foundation could absorb the capital of another gift and increase impact.
The hallmark of Scott’s giving style is making unrestricted gifts. The vast majority of her gifts that have been made public by the organizations to which she donates are unrestricted.
That comes after a thorough due diligence process, though, Dougherty said. That included sharing information such as the organization’s strategic plan, audited financials, business plans, organization chart, and grant-making process.
This also means after the donation was received, Scott’s organization was hands-off—however, Yield Giving has made calls to former recipients to ask for referrals for other organizations to which they should donate, Dougherty said.
“It was a great opportunity for us to pay it forward,” Dougherty said. “So we put together a list of organizations that we really believe in that are smaller in scale, but really having an impact, and we sent that through. But otherwise, the name of the game was just to make an impact, and we did that.”
