Fort Peck Community College on Tuesday announced it received “a monumental” $11 million donation from MacKenzie Scott, former wife of billionaire Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos. It’s the largest gift in the tribal college’s history.
Located in northeastern Montana, Fort Peck Community College (FPCC) employs about 100 people. In the spring of 2024, there were 468 enrolled students. In 2024, the school spent about $11.9 million to operate and had $14.3 million in revenue, according to ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
College President Craig Smith said in a news release the donation will be “transformative” for the school.
“While this investment will strengthen our physical infrastructure, it will also allow our administration, faculty and staff to enhance our services to our students and our communities across the Fort Peck Indian Reservation for generations to come,” he said in a news release. Craig could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Tribal colleges and universities are institutions of higher education, chartered by tribes, that aim to meet the educational and cultural needs of Native communities. There are 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities nationwide, seven of which are in Montana — the most of any state. The schools, open to all, operate on slim budgets and offer a variety of degrees, host community events and advance cultural and language revitalization efforts. Providing more than just education, tribal colleges serve as a resource hub in rural communities and act as an economic driver.
While some states, including Montana, provide funding to support non-Native students at tribal colleges, the schools receive the vast majority of their funding from the federal government. That funding was jeopardized last summer when the Trump administration proposed drastic cuts to tribal colleges and universities that would have reduced federal operational funds for the schools by about 90%. Tribal and education leaders fought the proposed cuts, which have not gone into effect.
Scott has donated to several tribal colleges in recent years. The New York Times reported that Scott recently gave $5 million to Little Priest Tribal College in Nebraska. And the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin, announced on Nov. 21 it had received an unrestricted $10 million donation from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation. In 2020, Scott gave $1 million to Chief Dull Knife College on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, $3 million to Blackfeet Community College on the Blackfeet Reservation and an undisclosed amount to Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Reservation, according to Scott’s philanthropic vehicle, Yield Giving. The vast majority of Scott’s gifts are unrestricted, meaning there are no donor-imposed rules for how the money must be spent.
Then-president of Salish Kootenai College Sandra Boham told the Great Falls Tribune in 2020 that she cried when Scott’s advisers called to deliver the news. Blackfeet Community College leaders said Scott’s gift was the largest it had ever received. Two years later, crediting Scott, the tribal college established a $3 million endowment fund, the first in school history. Scott has an unconventional approach when it comes to philanthropy — giving large, unrestricted gifts to thousands of organizations nationwide, in line with her pledge to give away her wealth following the divorce from Bezos.
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