A portion of the gift will be used to expand Girl Scouts’ reach on the city’s South and West sides.
Hundreds of girls in the Chicago area will have the chance to participate in Girl Scouts due to a $4.2 million donation from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
The donation to Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana is a portion of an $84.5 million gift to Girl Scouts of the USA that was made by Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
It’s the largest single donation in the group’s history.
“It is really awesome!” said Nancy Wright, CEO of the regional chapter, which has 30,000 girls ages 5 through 17 in 245 communities in six counties in Illinois and four in Indiana.
The donation was announced Tuesday, but when Wright learned of the gift weeks ago she teared up.
