PC: The New York Times/ Maliasili
A $15 million unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott is giving Maliasili a new source of capital as the African conservation organisation begins work under a new 2030 strategic plan. The grant, received in late 2025, is the second time Scott has supported Maliasili. Her earlier funding, awarded in 2021, helped establish the Maliasili Conservation Fund, a pooled funding model designed to give conservation organisations more flexible and longer-term financial support. As reported by Maliasili, since then, that fund has attracted more than $14 million and supported 28 partner organisations over three years. The latest $15 million award arrived as Maliasili was preparing to begin a new phase of its work. Maliasili used its 2021 funding from Scott as seed capital for the Maliasili Conservation Fund, known as MCF.
Maliasili says those partners have also used the funding to bring in additional resources, strengthening the model beyond the original grants. The organisation describes the money as one-time unrestricted funding, giving it considerable scope in how the grant can be used within its wider strategy. Rather than treating Scott’s latest contribution as a standalone grant, it plans to use part of the funding to expand an approach that emerged from her first gift. Scott’s support has become associated with unrestricted or trust-based philanthropy, in which organisations are given greater discretion over how money is allocated. Instead of operating as a conventional grant programme, the fund combines flexible financial support with organisational strengthening and help with fundraising. That distinction has shaped how the fund has developed. Partner organisations receive core and multi-year funding, while also getting support intended to improve their ability to operate, raise money and build stronger institutions.
In Maliasili’s case, the earlier grant was used to test a funding structure intended to address a longstanding issue for conservation groups: access to reliable core funding rather than money tied only to individual projects.
Over the following three years, MCF secured more than $14 million in additional funding. Maliasili says the fund supported 28 partners during that period. For every $1 provided through the conservation fund, partners unlocked roughly another $3 in funding, according to Maliasili.
The organisation also points to the money that those grants helped generate beyond the initial investment.