Alaska Native Heritage Center receives multimillion-dollar gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott

Billionaire MacKenzie Scott announced in a blog post this month that she’s donating $2.7 billion to 286 organizations across the country — and one of them is the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, a cultural center focused on Alaska Native traditions and history.

In an interview, Emily Edenshaw, Alaska Native Heritage Center president and CEO, didn’t disclose how much Scott donated but said it was a “multimillion-dollar” amount.

Scott, who was previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has so far given away more than $8 billion. Scott donated to 116 organizations last July and then another 384 in December.

Edenshaw said she got a call in May from a representative on Scott’s team saying the center had been selected to receive the unrestricted gift. It was unexpected, she said.

The funds will go toward infrastructure needs like heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as updating the Heritage Center’s Hall of Cultures and the six traditional Alaska Native dwellings behind the building, among other projects, according to Edenshaw.

The Heritage Center will also expand existing programs, including its cultural boxes, art kits made for kindergartners through high school students.

[University of Alaska Anchorage receives 2 large donations totaling $16 million]

“Even though we’ve been in operation for 22 years, (building an endowment is) still a work in progress and we want to achieve that vision,” Edenshaw said. “So I think this gift is going to allow us to really take some exciting steps in that direction.”

She said the gift allows the Heritage Center to “take our breath” and regroup after a difficult year.

“It really is part of a larger, larger story of opening up new possibilities for the Heritage Center,” Edenshaw said.

The donation is notable, Edenshaw said, because Native organizations and communities receive less than 1% of all philanthropic dollars nationwide.

Scott wrote in her blog post that she and her team made “relatively large” donations as a “signal of trust and encouragement, to them and to others.”

In explaining the kinds of organizations that received funding, Scott wrote, “Arts and cultural institutions can strengthen communities by transforming spaces, fostering empathy, reflecting community identity, advancing economic mobility, improving academic outcomes, lowering crime rates, and improving mental health, so we evaluated smaller arts organizations creating these benefits with artists and audiences from culturally rich regions and identity groups that donors often overlook.”