CHICAGO — Four health care centers in the city are getting a big — and unexpected — financial boost from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness, a nonprofit that serves over 105,000 children and adults each year at 30 locations in Illinois, received a $9 million award through the Chicago Community Trust from Scott’s Yield Giving charity fund, the organization announced Tuesday. It’s the largest donation in the organization’s history, said Raul Garza, president & CEO of Aunt Martha’s.
News of the massive grant caught the charity by surprise. Garza posted on its website the gift came after the charity’s “quiet research to evaluate” its work for “high potential for sustained positive impact,” among other factors.
“In fact, when informed of the generous gift, I was told that Ms. Scott is a fan of Aunt Martha’s work and the impact we make in underserved communities,” he wrote.
Due to the confidential nature of how Yield Giving researches and picks which nonprofits to donate to, Garza later told Block Club that the first call he received from Scott’s officials in September was light on details. He wasn’t sure if it was real, he said.
After learning more about Yield Giving, Garza called Scott’s office about a week later and apologized for not getting back to them sooner, he said. On the other side of the phone, Scott’s representative laughed and said that happens a lot with donor recipients, Garza said.
“In that moment, it validated all the things that we have done to take on issues that weren’t fair, in one way or another,” he told Block Club. “The validation is about those issues we’ve taken on that are not always easy but are the right thing to do.”
After getting the call about the donation, Garza decided to tell the company’s chief financial officer in a humorous way: He played off the call as no big deal and shared the news as the two were on their way to a meeting. The chief financial officer started crying in the car, he said.Â
The donation was a historic one for Aunt Martha’s, which has never received this large of a donation in its 51 years, he said. The highest private donation the organization previously received is about $2 million, he said.
“In this one donation, we’ve gotten four and a half times the amount that we’ve been able to raise in our whole history,” Garza said. “That is crazy.”
Aunt Martha’s is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in Illinois that is also licensed by the state’s Department of Children and Family Services to care for youth in out of home placements and offer mental health support, according to a press release announcing the news.
In recent years, the nonprofit’s leader has faced discriminatory and racist comments from former state health leaders and conflicts between health care organizations for taking stances on moral issues. Earlier this year, Aunt Martha’s filed a lawsuit against hospital Humboldt Park Health, where the provider’s neighborhood clinic used to be, after the health group evicted Aunt Martha’s for refusing to work with a physician who was inappropriate with a patient, Block Club reported.
The nonprofit has four Chicago locations, in Portage Park, a new Humboldt Park spot, South Chicago and East Side.
Aunt Martha’s is the latest nonprofit to receive a large-scale donation from Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Her organization does similar “quiet research” on which nonprofits to donate to without their knowing, according to the website.
Scott’s Yield Giving has donated $14 billion to over 1,600 nonprofits to date worldwide, according to the website.
Chicago organizations have been the frequent beneficiaries of Scott’s charitable giving. Last week, Cara Collective, a Chicago-based workforce development nonprofit, received $8 million from Scott, making it the largest donation in the organization’s 30-plus-year history, reported the Sun-Times.
In previous years, Scott has donated $50 million to Chicago Public Schools and millions more to South Loop nonprofit Community Organizing and Family Issues, Chicago-area Girl Scouts, National Museum of Mexican Art, Kennedy-King College and Uptown’s Black Theater Ensemble.
Garza called the award a “strong endorsement” of the nonprofit’s work, which focuses on helping marginalized communities and vulnerable neighbors get access to quality health care, including youth wellness.
“For over 50 years, our dedicated staff has worked tirelessly to transform lives by breaking down barriers, giving voice to the marginalized, and caring for our most vulnerable neighbors,” Garza said in a statement. “Yield Giving’s trust in Aunt Martha’s – based on the substance of our values and substantial value of our work – is a strong endorsement of our approach and our vision.”
Scott’s donation, which hit the bank about two weeks ago, has no timeline and is unrestricted. It will be used to increase mental health services at all of its locations, which is a dire need statewide, Garza told Block Club.Â
The money will also empower Aunt Martha’s continued innovation in transforming systems of care to be more inclusive, accessible and patient-centered, Garza said. Aunt Martha’s plans to use the money to bolster its value-based, integrated care in communities across Illinois.Â
Garza hopes the donation can inspire others to give to Aunt Martha’s and remind other health care providers that putting patients first — especially kids and marginalized communities — can create a strong model of care and holistic values, he said.
“It is a testament to the value that Aunt Martha’s creates for our patients, participants and DCFS youth through our innovative model of care,” Garza said. “It is also validation of our history of fighting for the equitable treatment of underrepresented individuals and communities. We are immensely grateful for this tremendous gift and for the dedication of our staff, Board of Directors, donors and advocates that made it possible.”
The Portage Park location, 4840 W. Byron St., is co-operated by The Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and serves as a mental health center also offering substance abuse services and child and family counseling. It is home to a 24/7 mobile crisis team that works in the community.
The Lutheran Social Services of Illinois received $335,000 last month to hire four people who will combat Northwest Side homelessness after local legislators allocated state funding for the effort.
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