Is Your Charity Ready for a Significant Windfall?

In August 2024, we provided a case study on the positive impact that the grantmaking of American novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has had on overall charitable giving. According to Forbes, Scott has an estimated net worth of over $33 billion, as of December 2025. Yield Giving (yieldgiving.com), the philanthropic organization she founded, shares that she has given over $26 billion in unrestricted grants to more than 2,700 nonprofit organizations.

However, that number is on the rise as it's reported that she has given another $7.2 billion in 2025 charitable donations,¹ including gifts of $700 million to historically Black colleges and universities,² according to The New York Times. Additionally, more windfalls could well be expected.

These unrestricted gifts have a significant impact on the nonprofits that receive them and can be life changing. Many of the nonprofits chosen by Scott received these large windfall funds for the first time and are exploring ways to maximize their impact, including using them to start or build quasi-endowment programs. Many are seeking best practices as they develop their game plans for the future of these funds, especially as federal budget cuts are impacting their budgets.

Scott's giving has reminded the nonprofit community of the potential of receiving windfalls, yet they have always been a part of the nonprofit landscape and come in many forms. They reiterate the importance of having a windfall policy in place. In this report, we provide some background on Scott’s philanthropy and highlight the importance of having a windfall policy in place to handle an unexpected, unrestricted gift, and other types of windfalls. We discuss some best practices including preparing a financial game plan that a nonprofit can follow. Key components of a plan can include:

1. Current assessment: Take a financial inventory of both short-term and long-term needs.
2. Investment policies: Build a customized investment policy statement (IPS) that can include policies for both short-term and long-term investing.
3. Governance program: Set up policies and procedures for the endowment/quasi-endowment program.
4. Communications plan: Develop a communications plan surrounding these new funds for the various stakeholders.
5. Strategic endowment plan (SEP): Build an endowment growth plan for the future.

Download the report to learn more about how nonprofits can prepare for a significant, unrestricted gift by having a Windfall Policy and Gift Acceptance Policy in place. We believe the most successful nonprofits develop these policies in advance, which often has helped them grow their endowments much more quickly.

Learn more about our value-added approach to working with endowments and foundations.

[1] The New York Times, "MacKenzie Scott Announces $7 Billion of Charitable Giving This Year," Nicholas Kulish and Theodore Schleifer, December 9, 2025.

[2] The New York Times, "MacKenzie Scott Gives $700 Million to Historically Black Colleges," Bernard Mokam, November 17, 2025.

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