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President Erika Endrijonas announced Tuesday that PCC would receive an unrestricted $30 million donation made on behalf of philanthropist and multi millionaire Mackenzie Scott. 

Scott, who was formerly married to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, discussed her charity work in an article published this morning, detailing her recent donation recipients in a lengthy list that included PCC. 

A representative of Scott shared the news with Endrijonas on the morning of the fifteenth, informing her that the school would be gifted 30 million dollars to be spent without restrictions. 

“You can imagine how stunned I was to receive this call and news, and it took a few days to convince myself that the call was real,” Endrijonas said in an email to the community. 

Scott’s representative cited PCC’s work on “pathways to economic mobility” as reason for the school’s consideration. She noted that Endrijonas’s reputation as an administrator provided faith that the funds would be well delegated. 

The donation comes with no set timeline for spending and requires that the school file a report of up to three pages detailing the uses of the money for the next three years. It also comes with the condition that the school will not request additional funding in the future, which Endrijonas indicated would not be a problem. 

The funds also came with the request that the donor be kept from the public until Scott had announced the donations herself, with the exception of select members of the PCC Foundation who would be receiving part of the donation directly. 

The funds were wire transferred to PCC on May 20 as an anonymous donation. Endrijonas was told to keep the gift under wraps until Scott announced it herself, but was told that if she had not done so by Sept. 20 the school could announce that it had received funds from an anonymous donor. 

“Of course, the hardest part was keeping the secret, because at the time, I was the only person who was allowed to know the identity of the donor,” Endrijonas said. “Thankfully for us, an intermediary reached out late last week to say that Ms. Scott would be posting a story online this week, and that once it was posted, we could acknowledge the gift. It has been very difficult to keep this secret because it is beyond exciting for our campus.” 

Endrijonas plans to come forward with plans for spending the funds in the near future. She acknowledges that the donation comes with a great responsibility and will aim to delegate the funds in a way that will support current programs as well as allow for new developments on campus. 

“Folks, PCC is a magical place for a whole host of reasons,” Endrijonas said. “Today, we celebrate the 30,000,000 reasons we are recognized as a beacon of student success and excellence, and I look forward to leading all of you and the college into the next chapter of our storied history.”

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