Trevor Project receives $45M from MacKenzie Scott after federal funding cuts

The gift provides a financial foundation for a nonprofit that has struggled to stabilize since the Trump administration ended specialized LGBTQ+ youth support through the federal 988 suicide and crisis line in July, leaving the organization’s independent hotline as the primary dedicated resource for an estimated 250,000 LGBTQ+ young people annually.

The Trevor Project, which operates a crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ young people, received a $45 million gift from MacKenzie Scott at the end of 2025, the organization announced Monday. The donation is the largest in the nonprofit’s history and arrives after the organization lost $25 million in federal funding and weathered years of leadership turmoil and repeated layoffs.

“I literally could not believe it and it took some time. I actually gasped,” said Jaymes Black, chief executive officer of The Trevor Project, upon learning of Scott’s gift.

The gift was not included among the donations Scott disclosed on her website in December, though Scott gave more than $7 billion to nonprofits in 2025, according to the organization. Scott, whose fortune derives largely from her ex-husband Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, previously gave The Trevor Project $6 million in 2020.

Federal funding loss

In July, the Trump administration stopped providing specific support for LGBTQ+ youth who called the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, ending a specialized option — known as “Press 3” — that The Trevor Project helped staff. The nonprofit said it lost $25 million in federal funding when the program ended.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported more than 1.5 million contacts were routed through the 988 service between September 2022 and July 2025.

The Trevor Project’s independent hotline continues to operate and reaches about 250,000 LGBTQ+ young people annually, Black said. The organization had served another 250,000 callers annually through the 988 Press 3 option.

Scott Bertani, director of advocacy at the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health, said the Trevor Project fills a gap that broader crisis lines are not built to address.

“Their services fill a gap that generic crisis lines simply aren’t designed to meet, particularly for young people facing identity-based stress, isolation or rejection,” Bertani said in a statement.

After losing the 988 funding, The Trevor Project launched an emergency fundraiser that raised $20 million, Black said. The organization set a 2026 budget of $47 million.

Organizational changes

The Trevor Project’s budget grew from around $4 million in 2016 to over $83 million in 2023, according to its public tax returns. That rapid expansion preceded internal difficulties: the board removed its chief executive in 2022, and the organization conducted multiple rounds of layoffs, including in July.

“We are a smaller organization than we were before,” Black said. “And we will continue to be really intentional and really mindful around growth and what growth really means for the organization.”

Thad Calabrese, a professor at New York University who researches nonprofit financial management, said rapid growth commonly creates financial problems for nonprofits, and that shifting federal funding environments have destabilized many organizations’ business models.

“Academic research has often viewed public funding as very stable, as a signal to donors that you’ve arrived as an organization, but the reality is you are now also open to changing political fortunes,” Calabrese said.

Speaking generally about nonprofit financial management, Calabrese also noted that diversifying revenue streams does not automatically produce stability.

“You’re less dependent upon a few funders, but on the other hand, if you have a lot of different revenue streams, do you have the management capacity for that?” Calabrese said.

Scott’s giving approach

Scott has distinguished herself among major donors by providing large, unrestricted gifts, often focused on equity or social justice. She does not accept project proposals or applications, and the members of her vetting team are largely unknown.

Research from the Center for Effective Philanthropy has found that concerns about nonprofits misusing Scott’s funds or growing unsustainably have largely not been borne out, according to Elisha Smith Arrillaga, vice president of research at the center. Arrillaga attributed that outcome to rigorous vetting by Scott’s team.

“People make all different kinds of investments because they really believe in the outcomes that organization can make and what their gifts can do to help accelerate that,” Smith Arrillaga said.

In an essay announcing her 2025 gifts, Scott wrote: “The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated, often on the basis that it is not financially self-sustaining, or that some of its benefits are hard to track. But what if these imagined liabilities are actually assets? … What if the fact that some of our organizations are vulnerable can itself be a powerful engine for our generosity?”

Black said Scott’s team was clear the gift was intended for long-term impact and that the organization would take time deciding how to use the funds.

“MacKenzie Scott’s folks were clear, like this gift was made for long-term impact,” Black said. Black called the donation “a powerful validation” of the organization’s mission, adding: “We’re calling this our turnaround story.”