"Santa Barbara City College recently revealed that it used a portion of a $20 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott without proper authorization. The Santa Barbara City College Foundation said it used some of the funds toward its Promise Program, which is a program run by the foundation that provides tuition assistance, books and other supplies for local high school students."
"Approximately $10.5 million of Scott's gift was used toward the program from 2021 to 2024, Bobbi Abram, CEO of the SBCC Foundation, told SFGATE in an email. Those funds were used without approval from the foundation's board, college officials or the board of trustees, Abrams said in a news release. There is approximately $13 million left of Scott's gift as of the Jan. 30 news release. Scott gifted the funds to the university in 2021, which was the largest gift it had ever received."
""These funds were netted in financial reports that is why it was not readily noticeable in Income Statements or the Balance Sheet," she said. Though the most recent audit revealed the unauthorized funds, prior audits of the foundation were clean, Abram added. "Because this misstatement happened on the fund level, it was outside the scope of the audit, and was the responsibility of previous management to report it to the auditors," she said."
About $10.5 million of MacKenzie Scott's $20 million gift was used for the Promise Program from 2021 to 2024 without approval from the foundation's board, college officials, or the board of trustees. Approximately $13 million of the gift remains as of Jan. 30. The foundation discovered the unauthorized funding in late spring 2025 during an internal accounting review and completed a full audit in fall. The internal reviews followed a leadership change when Bobbi Abram became the foundation's CEO in 2024. Abram said the funds were overstated, the Promise Program account had a negative balance, and the funds had been netted in financial reports.
Read at SFGATE
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