MacKenzie Scott has continued her gift-giving spree at historically Black colleges in Maryland.

The billionaire philanthropist gifted $50 million to Bowie State University, the largest contribution in the school’s 160-year history, officials announced Friday.

“We are profoundly grateful to MacKenzie Scott for her visionary commitment to education and equity,” Bowie State President Aminta Breaux said in a statement.

Scott’s total investment in Maryland’s oldest HBCU now stands at $75 million. She gave Bowie State $25 million in 2020.

Like Scott’s gifts to other organizations, the money is unrestricted, meaning university leaders can spend it however they please.

Breaux wrote that the gift “empowers us to expand access, elevate our research and academic excellence and uplift generations of students who will lead, serve and innovate.”

Last month, Scott gave $63 million to Morgan State University and $38 million to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Like the Bowie State gift, Morgan State’s and UMES’ were the largest in each school’s history. Coppin State University is the only HBCU in the state that hasn’t yet received a gift from Scott.

In her message announcing the gift, Breaux said the funds will be used to strengthen the university’s endowment, expand scholarships to reduce financial barriers, support research and innovation across disciplines and enrich the student experience.

“We will continue building on this momentum, leveraging this latest transformational gift to inspire even greater support for our brilliant yet often under-resourced students and faculty,” said Brent Swinton, the university’s vice president for philanthropic engagement. “When Bowie State thrives, our tight-knit community of alumni, families and partners — across the region and beyond — thrives with us.”

Scott’s gifts are now coveted in the nonprofit world. Her team works largely in the shadows, disclosing her ties to the gift only right before it lands in the institution’s bank account.

The Banner could not reach Scott for comment; she almost never gives media interviews, instead writing personal essays on her website. In one post from 2020, she wrote that she tasked her philanthropic team to find organizations “operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.”

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