MacKenzie Scott Gives $20 Million To Youth Mental Health Nonprofit She Believes In Most

MacKenzie Scott has given a $20 million unrestricted gift to Active Minds, the largest nonprofit in the United States dedicated to mobilizing young people to change the culture around mental health, marking the largest donation in the organization's 25-year history and bringing Scott's total support for the group to $24 million after an initial $4 million gift in 2021. Active Minds was founded by Alison Malmon during her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania, in the aftermath of the death of her older brother Brian, who died by suicide while she was in school. What she built from that grief is now a national movement with a chapter network on hundreds of campuses, peer-based education programs, and youth-led advocacy campaigns designed to change not just individual behavior but the broader cultural norms around seeking help. Scott's gift is entirely unrestricted, meaning Active Minds can deploy it however its leadership and youth partners determine will have the greatest long-term impact, without donor-imposed conditions on how the money is spent or what outcomes must be reported against.

The gift arrives at a moment of urgent and mounting need. CDC data from 2023 found that approximately one in five American high schoolers had seriously considered attempting suicide, and a 2025 study found that severe anxiety had increased by 86 percent in the United States since the mid-1990s while severe depression had increased by 145 percent. Active Minds plans to direct the funds toward expanding its Mental Health Advocacy Academy for high school students and its Mental Health Advocacy Institute for college students, two programs that train young people to function not just as participants in mental health conversations but as advocates, organizers, and leaders who can influence how schools, campuses, and communities respond to the crisis around them. Malmon called the gift a defining moment and said the unrestricted nature of the funding gives the organization the flexibility to put resources where the need and the opportunity are greatest, while simultaneously building the long-term capacity to meet a pivotal moment. Scott, who has now donated nearly half of her net worth across more than 2,700 organizations since 2020, did not make a public statement accompanying the gift, as is consistent with her approach to philanthropy.

Source:https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/mackenzie-scotts-20-million-gift-133700550.html