Raul Garza, president and chief executive of nonprofit Aunt Martha's in Olympia Fields, initially didn't believe a call saying his organization was in line for a $9 million donation.
The award is through the Chicago Community Trust, and comes as the Yield Giving fund had, through the first half of this year, given $146 million to 24 nonprofits, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The unsolicited donation is, apart from grants, the biggest donation Aunt Martha’s has received in its 51 years, according to Raul Garza, president and chief executive officer. Initially, he said Thursday, he didn’t believe it when he received a call in early September from a staff member of the Yield Giving charity. Garza said his own staff try to vet his calls, but the Yield Giving person “was persistent that she talk to me.” He said the call came the day after Aunt Martha’s annual gala, and “it was a little challenging to discern whether it was legit or not,” he said of being told the news of the donation. “It just seemed a little fishy,” he said. Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness is the only federally qualified health center in Illinois that is also licensed by the Department of Children and Family Services to care for youth in out-of-home placements. Aunt Martha’s said it serves more than 105,000 children and adults each year with more than 30 sites, including more than 20 community health centers spread across nine counties. An Aunt Martha's health center in Chicago Heights. The Olympia Fields-based nonprofit is receiving a $9 million grant through a charity established by MacKenkie Scott, former spouse of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon following her 2019 divorce, and had pledged to give much of her wealth to charity. Her personal fortune is estimated to be around $37 billion, and since Yield Giving was established in 2020 it has given more than $14 billion to more than 1,600 charities. Aunt Martha’s was founded in 1972, and Garza said that private donations over that period have amounted to a bit more than $2 million. “Not talking about grants or anything, it is the largest donation we ever got, more than we ever raised combined over 51 years,” he said. According to Aunt Martha’s, the Yield Giving fund performed “quiet research” on the nonprofit, a process it has used to vet organizations for potential funding. According to information on the Yield Giving website, the quiet research process evaluates organizations “through careful analysis of criteria specific to their size, geography, and mission for indicators of high potential for sustained positive impact, including stable finances, multiyear track records, measurement and evidence of outcomes, and experienced leadership representative of the community served.” To encourage people to focus on the charities rather than on her, Scott has stopped announcing her donations as she had in the past, now leaving it up to the charities to decide whether to publicize her gifts. In March, Scott announced a $250 million open call to community focused charities to apply to Yield Giving for grants and plans to give $1 million apiece to 250 charities. Previously, Scott gave only to organizations that she and her advisers selected and researched, and more than 6,000 nonprofits have applied, and winners will be announced early next year. Garza said the $9 million arrived just a couple of weeks ago, and “we want to be very thoughtful about it is to be used.” “We want to be very thoughtful, very deliberate” in how the money is used in order to have the “greatest impact to the greatest number of people,” he said. The funding is a “validation of our history of fighting for the equitable treatment of underrepresented individuals and communities,” Garza said. The money “will empower Aunt Martha’s continued innovation in transforming systems of care to be more inclusive, accessible, and patient centered,” he said. The Associated Press contributed. mnolan@tribpub.com
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