YWCA El Paso del Norte Region receives transformational gift from MacKenzie Scott

December 15, 2020

On Tuesday, December 15, MacKenzie Scott announced a gift of $20 million to YWCA El Paso del Norte Region (YWCA). MacKenzie Scott is an author and philanthropist known for supporting women’s and racial equity organizations. She was also recently named to Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in the world. Scott has also become known for trust-based philanthropy, meaning she provides unrestricted funds to trusted community organizations, allowing the organization to use the funds to support their mission and community as they see fit.

“This gift will make YWCA’s work possible for years to come and will impact so many people in the El Paso community,” said Dr. Sylvia Acosta, CEO of YWCA. “The crises our community have endured these past few years led us to lean into our mission even more and highlighted just how essential our programs are. Through it all, we continued supporting the women and children at our TLC, expanded programs to our senior residents, provided critical childcare and educational support to children of essential workers, and started a Courageous Conversations series focused on our mission. We are incredibly grateful to MacKenzie Scott for the opportunity to strengthen and expand our work and to ensure YWCA can support future generations of El Pasoans.”

YWCA has served the El Paso community for 111 years, providing critical support for El Pasoans since 1909. The organization’s mission is eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. Current programs include early childhood education, after school programs, teen leadership programming, a transitional living center for women and children who have survived domestic violence, senior housing, low-income housing, workforce development, health and wellness programs, and more.

“Our community has had a few difficult years and this gift is great news for El Paso,” Dr. Acosta said. “This transformational gift will allow the organization to strengthen and grow our programs. We are so thankful to have been recognized at the highest level of philanthropy.”