Achieve Atlanta, an organization that offers scholarships and college advising to students in Atlanta Public Schools, just got a big gift of its own.
Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $8 million to Achieve Atlanta, the agency recently announced.
Executive Director Tina Fernandez, in a written statement, called the gift “a testament to the work that Achieve Atlanta and our partners have been doing for the past seven years.”
The organization provides need-based postsecondary scholarships and advising help to APS students.
It launched in 2015 with a grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation. Since then, it’s provided more than $40 million in scholarship funds to several thousand students. Just over half of the recipients are first-generation students, and nearly all are Black or Hispanic students, according to the group’s most recent report on its impact.
Fernandez said the organization plans to work with its stakeholders in the coming months to determine how to use the $8 million donation.
Scott has made several major donations to schools and education programs in Atlanta in recent years. In July 2020, she gave $20 million each to Morehouse and Spelman colleges. That December, Scott donated $15 million to Clark Atlanta University. All three are historically Black colleges and universities located near downtown Atlanta.
Earlier this year, she gave $4 million to Communities in Schools of Atlanta to support work in dozens of schools in the city of Atlanta and in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties.
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