WASHINGTON, Dec 18: Following a 'giving pledge' she had signed last year, former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, billionaire MacKenzie Scott, has given away $4.2 billion in philanthropy in the last four months. She is worth $60 billion.

She has selected 380 charities to donate. Donations were focused on those "operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital."

Institutions of higher education, including several tribal colleges and historically Black colleges and universities, affiliates of Goodwill Industries International and food banks were beneficiaries.

Scott said early this week that she also wanted to help the victims of the coronavirus pandemic. "This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling," she posted on the social media.

"Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of colour, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires... I have a disproportionate amount of money to share," she wrote. She wants to offload her fortune as quickly as possible, her aides said.

MacKenzie Scott, 50, is an American novelist, billionaire and philanthropist. Scott was married to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, from 1993 to 2019. According to Forbes magazine she is the 22nd richest person in the world. The main source of the wealth is her $38 billion divorce settlement.

Jeff Bezos is the richest person on earth with a net worth of $160 billion.