The Santa Barbara City College Foundation disclosed the unauthorized use of millions of dollars originally gifted to the college by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in 2021. In a statement, SBCC Foundation CEO Bobbi Abram confirmed that a portion of Scott’s $20 million gift was used for the Promise program without the required approval of the SBCC Board of Trustees, leaving about $13 million of the original amount remaining.
Scott, who was formerly married to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, donated the $20 million to SBCC after pledging to give the majority of her wealth in 2019. Since then, Scott has donated more than $26.3 billion. Scott’s gift to SBCC and the SBCC Foundation is the largest single donation in the school’s history.
According to Abram’s campus-wide statement, the misuse of the funds came after internal comprehensive review found “legacy accounting misstatements” that ultimately led to the discovery of the unauthorized use of the Scott gift funds to contribute to the Promise program, which covers tuition and supplies for all local high school graduates for up to two years.
Abram said that the SBCC Foundation leadership and the college’s Board of Trustees were originally led to believe that “other sources were funding the program.”
Abram took over as SBCC Foundation’s CEO in May 2024, and conducted an audit after finding inconsistencies in the accounting records in early 2025. According to reporting from SBCC’s student newspaper The Channels, the audit concluded in December 2025 and found that the funds were used to cover part of the Promise program’s $10.5 million deficit prior to Abrams taking over for the foundation’s previous CEO Geoff Green. The SBCC Foundation has since strengthened its internal controls, Abrams said, in an effort to ensure the accounting figures are accurate going forward.
The SBCC Board of Trustees conducted its own investigation into the misuse of the funds, and the board will hear a detailed report on February 19. Board President Jonathan Abboud released a statement saying the board was “disappointed to learn that the MacKenzie Scott funds were used without explicit authorization by either the SBCC Foundation board or the college.”
“SBCC is nevertheless grateful to the SBCC Foundation’s current leadership and staff for identifying the past unauthorized activity and initiating a comprehensive review of the SBCC Foundation’s past accounting practices and swiftly improving internal controls,” Abboud said. “The SBCC Board will continue to work collaboratively with the SBCC Foundation to address this matter appropriately and ensure full transparency and accountability for the use of the gift funds.”
