Santa Barbara City College has blown more than half of MacKenzie Scott’s $20 million donation — the largest the college has ever received — on a program that wasn’t properly approved.
About $10.5 million of Scott’s gift was spent on The Promise Program, which provides tuition assistance, books and supplies for local high school students, SF Gate reported.
But the spending wasn’t approved by the Santa Barbara City College Foundation Board.
“Those funds were used without approval from the foundation’s board, college officials or the board of trustees,” Bobbi Abram, CEO of the SBCC Foundation said.
The foundation became aware of the unauthorized spending spree after an internal accounting review, and a full audit was carried out in fall 2025, Abram said.
The funds were “overstated” and the account was in the red, she said.
“These funds were netted in financial reports that is why it was not readily noticeable in Income Statements or the Balance Sheet,” she said.
Abram told SF Gate that the foundation has “complied with all reporting requirements of the donor” when asked whether Scott was made aware of the issue. The CEO was adamant, however, that the gift wasn’t “misused” since it was spent in the “spirit of the donor’s intent.”
The billionaire philanthropist, and Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, made the generous donation in 2021.
The college celebrated it at the time saying, “a gift of this size makes an unequivocal statement that our community’s college is worthy of this level of investment.”
SBCC has a number of famous alumni, including Katy Perry.
SBCC Board of Trustees President Jonathan Abboud said in a statement that the Board of Trustees was “disappointed” by the revelation — and that it would launch its own investigation into what happened.
“While we were disappointed to learn that the MacKenzie Scott funds were used without explicit authorization by either the SBCC Foundation board or the College, SBCC is nevertheless grateful to the SBCC Foundation’s current leadership and staff for identifying the past unauthorized activity,” Abboud said in a Jan. 30 statement.
Scott didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The funding debacle will be on the agenda at a Feb. 19 trustees meeting, according to the college.
