Money from a $20 million donation has been used to fund Santa Barbara City College’s Promise program for about five years, because of the program’s deficits.

Two weeks ago, the Santa Barbara City College Foundation announced that millions of dollars of the MacKenzie Scott donation were used to fund the SBCC Promise program without being authorized by the college Board of Trustees or the foundation board.

Scott, who was formerly married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, made the gift in 2021, and it was the largest-ever single donation to SBCC. 

The SBCC Promise, which pays for two years of tuition, books and supplies for eligible local high school graduates, started in 2016 and has been in a deficit since 2018, SBCC Foundation CEO Bobbi Abram said. The program has helped support 9,800 students since it started, Abram said.

“The Scott gift came in 2021,” Abram noted. “So, essentially, those bonds were effectively used to cover that deficit.”

Santa Barbara City College’s legal counsel is leading an investigation into the matter, college spokesperson Jordan Killebrew said.

The SBCC Board of Trustees is expected to discuss the item and hear public comment during its meeting next Thursday. Board president Jonathan Abboud declined to comment on the issue because of the ongoing investigation.

Abram said the main issue with the spending is that the choice to cover the SBCC Promise program’s deficit was not approved by the foundation board or college officials, but she said the money was not misused. She said Scott’s gift was meant to help students go to school and reach their academic potential.

However, the process used to fund the SBCC Promise was not transparent, Abram said.

“We are making sure that the community knows that we have an eye on this process, and we have improved the process,” Abram said. “We will be working closer with the college … to make sure that the remainder of the funds will be spent in collaboration.”

Abram said the foundation will work to make sure the program is supported through other means. She said there is a small endowment fund, and the foundation used money from AB 19, the California College Promise, for the first time last year. 

She added that the foundation has identified other funds that may be able to support the program and close the deficit. The annual cost of the SBCC Promise program is $2.5 million.

“Following a leadership transition which resulted in an internal comprehensive review, the foundation identified legacy accounting misstatements that led to the discovery that funds from the unrestricted Scott gift had been effectively funding a portion of the SBCC Promise, despite the foundation and college board being told that other sources were funding the program,” Abram said in the Jan. 30 statement.

The decision to use the Scott gift to cover the deficit was made by previous SBCC Foundation management, according to Abram, which appears to be a reference to former CEO Geoff Green, who left for another position in 2023.

Right now, $13 million of the $20 million donation remains unspent.

Abram said the money raised to support the SBCC Promise did not fully cover the program’s costs. The issue was not identified earlier because money from Scott’s donation was used to fill the deficit.

Abram said current foundation staff discovered the money was being used this way because of reviewing a fund report.

“We weren’t really sure if it was just an accounting error or if that was actually a change in assets,” Abram said. “So, we immediately got an external accountant who came in and did an internal review for us.”

The internal review was completed by June 2025 and showed that the issue was not an accounting error, according to Abram. She said the foundation began an audit that was completed in December.

The audit was then presented to the SBCC Foundation’s Board of Directors in January.

Moving forward, Abram said the foundation plans to be more transparent with how the money is used and ensure it does not happen again.

Fund reports will be sent to the Board of Directors and the finance committee regularly. They will also receive reports on checks and withdrawals.