{"id":10513,"date":"2023-01-24T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/jeff-bezos-says-hes-giving-away-his-wealth-to-charity-what-does-that-mean\/"},"modified":"2023-01-24T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:00:00","slug":"jeff-bezos-says-hes-giving-away-his-wealth-to-charity-what-does-that-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atswins.ai\/blog\/jeff-bezos-says-hes-giving-away-his-wealth-to-charity-what-does-that-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos says he\u2019s giving away his wealth to charity. What does that mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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During a <\/strong>CNN interview last fall, Amazon founder <\/strong>Jeff Bezos revealed that he intends to give away most of his fortune \u2014 $120 billion as of January 2023. <\/p>\n

When one of the richest people in the world signals that his immense wealth will go to helping others, ears tend to perk up. The announcement brings into focus how the business tycoon will spend the coming years, but it also raises plenty of questions around the way he plans to dispense such an unfathomable sum of money. Who will Bezos give his wealth away to, and how quickly? How will the world be affected? <\/p>\n

We know this much: He\u2019s given country singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton<\/a> $100 million to spend as she wished, but beyond that, Bezos hasn\u2019t yet shared much detail. He\u2019s issued no press release sketching out an overarching vision for where his hundred billion-plus dollars \u2014 an amount bigger than some nations\u2019 GDPs \u2014 will go. Bezos also hasn\u2019t signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 that calls on the world\u2019s wealthiest people to pledge at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. Famous signatories include Bezos\u2019s own ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk, George Lucas, Mark Zuckerberg, and even fallen crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried, whose name has been removed from the site. Pledges often come with a letter that elucidates what inspired the commitment and what their philanthropic priorities are. <\/strong>In her letter, for example, Scott expressed why she doesn\u2019t believe in waiting to give her \u201cdisproportionate amount of money\u201d away. \u201cI will keep at it until the safe is empty,\u201d she wrote. <\/strong>By comparison, Bezos has been fairly reticent to discuss what motivates his philanthropy and the pace at which he\u2019ll do it. <\/p>\n

Unlike philanthropists such as Bill and Melinda Gates, who have specialized in global health funding for decades, Bezos has so far given hefty grants in disparate areas, such as homelessness and climate. \u201cIt feels a bit piecemeal,\u201d said Rhodri Davies, founder of Why Philanthropy Matters, a site that publishes analysis and commentary on the philanthropy world. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Bezos] kind of has a habit of rushing with these big announcements, and then not having a lot of detail to answer some of those follow-up questions,\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n

Some of the curiosity around Bezos\u2019s new philanthropic streak stems from the fact that Amazon, the source of his fortune, is increasingly under scrutiny. Amid the pandemic, Amazon raked in incredible profits as online shopping demand soared \u2014 and faced a torrent of negative press, from allegations of pandemic price gouging to the long-simmering labor issues that erupted in 2020 through worker protests and culminated in the recognition of the first Amazon union in the US last spring. Last year, tech companies\u2019 stocks cratered from their pandemic surge, but that did little to threaten Amazon\u2019s standing as one of 2022\u2019s most profitable American companies. The growing size and reach of the \u201ceverything store,\u201d however, has affected its public perception: <\/strong>A 2019 CNBC survey of 10,000 Americans showed that a majority of respondents believed the company was bad for small businesses.<\/p>\n

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Christian Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, leads pro-union protestors on a march on 11th Street in New York City on September 5, 2022.<\/figcaption>Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

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Bezos is no longer Amazon\u2019s CEO, but as the company\u2019s biggest individual shareholder, his money remains tied to Amazon\u2019s fortunes, and his sudden commitment to saving the world is being met with criticism from some in philanthropy and activist circles who argue that his philanthropic vision is disjointed and fails to be bolder, especially considering Amazon\u2019s record on labor and climate. But Bezos\u2019s giving is also impressing others with the no-fuss simplicity of his grant-making style and his trust in respected experts.<\/p>\n

Bezos\u2019s philanthropic track record <\/h3>\n

Before 2018, Bezos didn\u2019t have much of a philanthropic r\u00e9sum\u00e9. It was a source of growing criticism from the press and nonprofit experts as his net worth climbed, topping $100 billion by the end of 2017. He\u2019s since kicked his philanthropic efforts into high gear, committing $2 billion to his Day 1 Families Fund in 2018, <\/strong>of which about $521.6 million so far has been granted to organizations addressing homelessness, <\/strong>and in 2020, announcing the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund (BEF). In an Instagram post announcing the fund, Bezos wrote, \u201cClimate change is the biggest threat to our planet. I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share,\u201d noting that averting the crisis would require action from \u201cbig companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since stepping down as Amazon CEO in 2021, Bezos has had more time to focus on this new chapter of his public life. With the Bezos Earth Fund, which responds to the climate crisis with an emphasis on conservation and restoration, he indicated that he would give away roughly $1 billion a year through 2030. <\/strong>According to the fund\u2019s website, it has granted $1.63 billion since its launch. <\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s both a lot of money for the relatively small number of nonprofits receiving lump sums of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars \u2014 and not a lot of money, given that Bezos is worth north of $100 billion.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s been most notable about Bezos\u2019s approach so far is how surprisingly easy it is for organizations to receive grants from him. Applying for a grant can often be a long, burdensome process for nonprofits. With the Day 1 Families Fund, Bezos has appointed an advisory board that reaches out to organizations to recommend that they apply for a grant, removing a lot of the leg work and uncertainty from grant seekers. PATH, a homelessness prevention organization based in Los Angeles, received $5 million from the Day 1 Families Fund this past November. Tyler Renner, PATH\u2019s director of media, <\/strong>recalled that the application was \u201csimple and straightforward,\u201d amounting to about 2,000 words. <\/strong>PATH has flexibility in how to use the funds \u2014 but the fund stipulated that it had to focus on \u201cending homelessness for families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grants have few restrictions and often grantees note this as an important benefit to doing what is needed most,\u201d a spokesperson for the Day 1 Families Fund confirmed to Vox. <\/p>\n

Solo Por Hoy, Inc, a nonprofit based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, providing assistance with homelessness and other crises, received an email out of the blue in August from the Day 1 fund saying that the advisory board had recommended it for a $600,000 grant. \u201cPrior to that I had never heard of this foundation before,\u201d Belinda Hill, Solo Por Hoy\u2019s executive director, told Vox in an email. Then, at the end of October, the organization was told that, in fact, it would be granted $1 million. \u201cI can tell you it is a game changer for us and the homeless population we serve,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n

LA Family Housing, one of the largest homeless services providers in the Los Angeles region, received a second $5 million grant from the fund last year, <\/strong>with the first having come in 2018. The only restriction, again, was that the money be used to support families experiencing homelessness, rather than individuals. Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, the group\u2019s president and CEO, echoed that the process was remarkably streamlined. \u201cWe received a call, and then an email inviting us to apply,\u201d she told Vox. The application itself was just one or two prompts. \u201cThe prompt was something like, \u2018You find yourself at the intersection of needing an emergency response to accomplish long-term sustainability on ending family homelessness \u2014 please propose what you would do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was thoughtful and respectful of the expertise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Safe choices? <\/h3>\n

One of the emerging criticisms of Bezos\u2019s philanthropy is that in striving not to be controversial, it misses funding approaches that attack the deeper roots of the climate crisis and homelessness that advocates say need urgent attention.<\/p>\n

Marion Gee, co-executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), told Vox that many of the initial rounds of Bezos Earth Fund grants went to \u201cmuch bigger, Big Green organizations that often fund market schemes [and] techno fixes.\u201d It gave a whopping $100 million each to already well-funded organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund that, in the Alliance\u2019s view, don\u2019t disrupt the status quo of fossil fuel dependence. Focusing on environmental conservation is also less politically heated than organizations that frame the climate crisis as a problem of unfettered capitalism, of economic extraction and injustice, that harms communities of color most.<\/p>\n

The CJA has not received a grant from the BEF, but it has been in conversations with the organization about where its grants could go. \u201cFrom a climate justice perspective,\u201d Gee said, \u201cwe pushed back hard and asked those groups [that did receive grants] to reallocate some of that money directly to the Fund for Frontline Power,\u201d which gives money to communities that have been directly and disproportionately impacted by environmental injustice. <\/p>\n

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A worker pulls vines from a bean crop in a greenhouse at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture\u2019s Future Seeds genebank in Palmira, Colombia, in August 2022. Future Seeds last year received a $17 million pledge from the Bezos Earth Fund.<\/figcaption>Jair F. Coll\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

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A scientist sorts bean seeds with imperfections in a laboratory at CIAT. The new genomics facility holds the world\u2019s largest repository of beans, cassava, and tropical forages used to study climate change mitigation for crops.<\/figcaption>Jair F. Coll\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

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The Bezos Earth Fund has shown some willingness to listen. In 2021, seemingly in response to activist pressure, it granted about $150 million to at least 19 different climate justice organizations in support of the Biden administration\u2019s Justice40 initiative. It gave $4 million to the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, which conducts research and policy advocacy in the Gulf Coast, including the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor \u2014 also known as \u201cCancer Alley\u201d \u2014 where a proliferation of petrochemical factories has increased the risk of cancer in the predominantly Black neighborhoods where many plants were built. The BEF also gave $6 million to WE ACT, a group that works to ensure low-income communities of color have a voice in shaping environmental health policies, as well as $5 million to climate justice group Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) to build more climate-resilient infrastructure in California.<\/p>\n

Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, told Vox in a statement that it was led by a team of diverse experts in climate science, philanthropy, public policy, and other fields. He did not respond to questions from Vox asking for further details on how its grant-making process worked \u2014 such as whether it used an advisory board that makes recommendations the way the Day 1 fund does. \u201cWe remain committed to environmental justice, granting over $300 million so far to environmental justice groups in the US,\u201d wrote Steer.<\/p>\n

Climate justice advocates have balked over some of these grants. Late last year the BEF, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and the State Department, announced the creation of a carbon offset program called the Energy Transition Accelerator. It would allow corporations in wealthy countries to buy offsets for their carbon emissions, and that money would go to renewable energy projects in developing countries. But carbon offsets have a dubious track record; it\u2019s hard to ensure that emissions have actually been offset. The BEF has also dedicated $11 million to initiatives focused on improving the quality of voluntary carbon markets.<\/p>\n

In an email to Vox, Gee called these latest BEF grants \u201cvery wide of the mark.\u201d \u201cThese grants do not cut emissions at source, allow for continued pollution of frontline communities, prolong our dependence on fossil fuels, and divert needed resources from real solutions grounded in justice, equity, and sustainability that work for people and the planet,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Similarly, though the Day 1 Families Fund has doled out grants to well-respected organizations providing crucial homelessness services, critics say it has mostly focused on groups addressing family homelessness, which is more likely to be temporary, while neglecting chronic homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people experiencing chronic homelessness are so enormously neglected in philanthropic giving,\u201d Sara Rankin, a law professor at Seattle University and director of the law school\u2019s Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, told Vox.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re never going to find me or anyone else saying that family homelessness is not worthwhile or important to pay attention to,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what I\u2019m saying is, the history of philanthropic giving, especially when you focus on homelessness, completely excludes the most visible, arguably the most vulnerable, and the most costly segment of the homeless population \u2014 which are people experiencing chronic homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is especially worrying because around 30 percent of homelessness is chronic, and that number is increasing. It often occurs because the person has a disabling condition that prevents them from working and maintaining housing. People who are chronically homeless aren\u2019t usually families, but single adults, and they\u2019re more likely to face violent forced hospitalization, criminalization, and public contempt. It\u2019s politicized in a way that family homelessness is not \u2014 and less palatable for philanthropic giving, which has historically been \u201coverwhelmingly focused on really sympathetic recipients, like families, children,\u201d said Rankin. \u201cYou get a double bang for your buck by donating to sympathetic recipients \u2014 it sort of fulfills a marketing function as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The failure to be bolder for fear of reputational damage is a problem of philanthropy in general, and not just Bezos. But it underscores the limits of philanthropy in effectively, radically solving problems, especially when billionaire donors place limits and stipulations on grants. The virtues of no-strings-attached, trust-based philanthropy \u2014 in which donors rely on grant recipients to know best how their grant should be used \u2014 have become widely discussed in the sector in recent years, but it\u2019s still fairly uncommon for billionaire philanthropists to bestow unrestricted gifts. (Scott is one notable exception, having become renowned in the few years since signing the Giving Pledge for giving enormous gifts to smaller grassroots organizations, with no strings attached.)<\/p>\n

Rankin mused that a number of people on the Day 1 fund\u2019s advisory board, which she praised as being full of \u201cincredibly smart and experienced professionals in the homelessness space,\u201d would likely agree that the fund needs more focus on housing solutions and chronic homelessness. \u201cBut they don\u2019t get to determine the philanthropic mission,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bezos the philanthropist enters the spotlight<\/h3>\n

Philanthropists craft their image not only through the kinds of organizations they fund \u2014 and which they exclude \u2014 but also through showy announcements and events where they\u2019re lauded for their work. In October of last year, Bezos received an award that conferred philanthropic prestige from a venerated moral authority: the Vatican. One of the recipients of the inaugural Prophets of Philanthropy Award from the Galileo Foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit supporting the initiatives of the Pope, Bezos gave a speech at the Vatican\u2019s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. <\/strong>He also made a $200 million donation to the Smithsonian last year \u2014 the largest since its founding \u2014 that comes with 50-year naming rights to a new building within the institution. <\/p>\n

Linsey McGoey, a professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of No Such Thing As A Free Gift<\/em>, said that billionaire philanthropists often make announcements \u201cin a way that\u2019s geared at high-press visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt, with the resources at his disposal, it\u2019s incredibly important to pay [Bezos] attention,\u201d said Ben Soskis, a senior research associate in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. \u201cBut he clearly also wants a certain kind of attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soskis described Parton receiving the Courage and Civility Award<\/a> from Bezos as \u201cheavily choreographed.\u201d \u201cBezos himself was an important part of that ceremony,\u201d he said, and the award cemented his association with a largely beloved celebrity. The award went to Parton personally, not to her Dollywood Foundation, and the singer has not yet revealed how she plans on using the $100 million.<\/p>\n

In past years, Bezos gave the award to other well-known figures, such as CNN political commentator Van Jones and chef Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s. He has also invited several celebrities on space flights with his aerospace company, Blue Origin, including actors Pete Davidson (who later backed out) and William Shatner, and Good Morning America anchor Michael Strahan.<\/p>\n

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Blue Origins vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, left, watches as Star Trek actor William Shatner waves on the landing pad of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard near Van Horn, Texas, after they flew into space on October 13, 2021.<\/figcaption>Mario Tama\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

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Jeff Bezos holds the aviation glasses that belonged to Amelia Earhart as he speaks about his flight into space on Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard near Van Horn, Texas, on July 20, 2021. Bezos said he took the glasses with him on the flight.<\/figcaption>Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

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\u201cI think there\u2019s often an element of philanthropy that is driven a bit by a desire for recognition and social status,\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n

Compared to philanthropists like ex-wife Scott, Bezos has yet to find his distinct identity, experts said.<\/p>\n

If Bezos does have a philanthropic identity, said Soskis, \u201cit probably has more to do with his identity as an entrepreneur \u2014 the entrepreneur as someone who transcended politics, which is itself very much a political stance.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s become evident in the vague manner in which Bezos has spoken publicly about his philanthropic values. During his CNN interview, explaining why he chose Parton to steward his $100 million gift, he emphasized that she behaved \u201calways with civility and kindness.\u201d He lamented that the world was full of conflict and \u201cad hominem attacks,\u201d but gave no specific examples of the kinds of political divisiveness he referred to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to bring a little bit of light, a little bit of amplification to these people who use unity instead of conflict,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Amazon looms over Bezos\u2019s generosity<\/h3>\n

Despite Bezos\u2019s efforts to keep his philanthropic giving apolitical, the manifold criticisms of Amazon\u2019s business model, much of which was formed during his 27 years as the company\u2019s chief executive, have become impossible to ignore: There are the labor concerns that have only grown as the company has strived for e-commerce dominance, accusations of tax avoidance, its rising carbon emissions. Amazon has complicated how Bezos\u2019s generosity is digested in the public eye. His money goes to good causes more often than not, but how does the impact of Bezos\u2019s philanthropy weigh against the record of the company where he continues to make his wealth?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question that\u2019s become more urgent for modern-day philanthropists. Once upon a time, it was more common for the wealthy to wait until the twilight of their lives to bestow their fortunes (and names) to universities, museums, and other cultural institutions. The old model exemplified by Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller was \u201cyou make your money, people hate you, and then you start giving it away and people like you in the last decade,\u201d said Soskis. Today, there\u2019s more public pressure against the waiting approach, as Bezos experienced before starting the Day 1 fund in 2018. There are also a lot more billionaires today (north of 2,600 by Forbes\u2019s count) <\/strong>than there were during the Gilded Age. \u201cThe problem of publicity is increasingly more prominent in the time when you have engaged living donors, especially if they are making the money at the same time they\u2019re giving it away,\u201d Soskis said. <\/p>\n

It makes the relationship between who they are as philanthropists and who they are as business magnates more visible \u2014 negative press around a billionaire-owned company can break alongside an announcement of a giant philanthropic gift. The week that Bezos announced that he plans to give most of his wealth away, news of impending mass layoffs at Amazon broke, and in early January the company revealed that close to 18,000 employees would lose their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think whenever Jeff Bezos comes out and says, \u2018I\u2019m doing something philanthropic,\u2019 80 percent of the coverage, if not 90 percent, is yes, but what about the way you treat work in warehouses and pay taxes?\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n

Those are far from the only issues complicating the reception to Bezos\u2019s personal philanthropy. The impact that corporations like Amazon can have on gentrifying already high-cost areas has become a hot-button issue too, standing at odds with the work that the Day 1 Families Fund is doing. Amazon\u2019s announcement in 2017 that it would construct a second headquarters outside of Seattle sparked a furious bidding war between cities \u2014 and equally furious opposition from residents and politicians. In its hometown, when Bezos was still Amazon CEO, the company also gained notoriety for helping snuff out a bill that would have levied an extra tax on Seattle\u2019s big businesses, aiming to raise an extra $47 million per year to address the homelessness and affordable housing crisis in the area. The city council passed the bill in a unanimous vote; Amazon voiced its displeasure by halting construction on a new downtown office. Less than a month after the bill\u2019s passage, it was repealed.<\/p>\n

The next year, Amazon spent $1.5 million on the Seattle city council races \u2014 a record-breaking amount for its city council elections \u2014 in support of a more pro-business council and to defeat council member Kshama Sawant, a stalwart Amazon critic who sought to raise corporate taxes.<\/p>\n

Having made its position on taxes clear, in 2021 Amazon launched a $2 billion fund for affordable housing in Seattle and other regions across the US. Its Housing Equity Fund has so far invested $500 million in the form of grants and loans to affordable housing developments, including another recently announced $150 million commitment. Compare that to the $47 million per year Seattle\u2019s city council hoped to raise. But it also sends a message: Amazon is willing to bestow generosity on its own terms, not on the government\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest elephant in the room is the dissonance between Bezos\u2019s climate philanthropy and Amazon\u2019s ballooning carbon emissions. The company\u2019s emissions, which stem not only from its products but also its corporate offices, data centers, and warehouses, and its increasing growing delivery and logistics services, grew by 18 percent in 2021, <\/strong>and are likely to keep growing as it continues to expand warehouses. <\/p>\n

According to Reveal from The Center of Investigative Reporting, this is likely an undercount, because unlike major retailers like Walmart, it doesn\u2019t include emissions from products it sells made by third-party manufacturers. According to a new report from environmental non-profit Oceana, its plastic packaging waste \u2014 a major source of ocean pollution \u2014 also increased by 18 percent in 2021. <\/strong>The Bezos Earth Fund made a $50 million grant at the UN Ocean Conference to help expand the number of marine protected areas. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a conflict that Gee of the Climate Justice Alliance has grappled with. Should climate activists refuse to associate with or engage with the Bezos Earth Fund given the source of its money? \u201cThe wealth accumulation is based on extraction,\u201d said Gee of the Climate Justice Alliance. \u201cWe know that this money has come from paying workers low wages and harsh conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, by Gee\u2019s calculus, taking money seems better than leaving it in a billionaire\u2019s hands. \u201cWe know, as a climate justice organization, if we don\u2019t try to influence where that money will go, it will continue to go to things that just continue to allow pollution, continue to allow harm to frontline communities,\u201d she said. \u201cIt puts us in a difficult position where we\u2019re relying on billionaires that have capitalized on the extractive economy to make the transition that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Asian Pacific Environmental Network, which received $5 million from BEF, echoed the sentiment that it was important to proactively try to shift money to climate justice groups. \u201cThe amount of money that was going to be pouring into the climate space \u2014 it would have a real impact on the conditions that our climate justice movement will face in building power for a just transition,\u201d said Vivian Huang, a co-director at the organization. She noted that the fund\u2019s initial $100 million grants went to \u201clarge traditional environmental organizations\u201d advocating for policies \u201cthat allow big polluters to continue treating our neighborhoods as environmental sacrifice zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon was also a major presence in APEN\u2019s internal conversations around whether to apply for a BEF grant. \u201cWhile most of the funds distributed through philanthropic foundations are gained through the exploitation of land and people, the scale and immediacy of the impact that Amazon has had on our communities has been devastating,\u201d Huang said. \u201cFrom inhumane working conditions to tax avoidance and increasing pollution burden, Jeff Bezos is remaking entire industries to concentrate even more profits in the hands of the wealthy at the expense of workers and communities.\u201d APEN and the Bezos Earth Fund agreed that if the group applied for a grant and received one, it would still be able to join and support future campaigns around Amazon\u2019s labor and climate issues.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Bezos\u2019s philanthropy won\u2019t fix the harms caused by Amazon. \u201cIf he wanted to redress those harms, he could change the practices of his company, recognize Amazon worker unions, and negotiate fair contracts,\u201d said Christine Cordero, co-director of APEN. Cordero noted that billionaires should be giving their wealth away, but that there were still a lot of concerns around how philanthropic decisions are made and by whom.<\/p>\n

This past March, a youth-led feminist organization called FRIDA made waves when it revealed it had received a $10 million gift from Scott, whose billions also come from Amazon stock \u2014 and made clear that it considered the money a kind of reparations. \u201cWhile we are humbled and excited to receive this donation and map out the ways in which this money could strengthen the FRIDA community and our existing strategy, we acknowledge the source of MacKenzie Scott\u2019s wealth and its association with one of the most exploitative companies in the world,\u201d the announcement post read. \u201cWe work to challenge wealth and privilege, and recognize that philanthropic giving exists because of inequality and exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philanthropy also can be an attempt to erase negative reputations. Today, Bill Gates is synonymous with global health philanthropy; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an estimated endowment of $70 billion, and it\u2019s the second biggest contributor to the World Health Organization. But Gates\u2019s entry into philanthropy roughly coincided with a tumultuous time at Microsoft in the late \u201990s, when the tech giant was facing a major court case accusing it of ruthless, anti-competitive practices. Today, that controversial past has mostly been smoothed over, and Gates is first and foremost associated with the image of a benevolent, thoughtful public citizen.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the scandal surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried and his crypto exchange FTX, the concept of \u201cearning to give\u201d was suddenly everywhere. Bankman-Fried\u2019s version of effective altruism argued that one should maximize their wealth because that would also maximize the amount of money one could give away. But a certain variation of this logic exists in philanthropy at large. Philanthropists have long leaned on their ability to do a lot of good for society as a justification for deeply unequal wealth distribution. If, in the end, their riches were benefiting the public \u2014 wasn\u2019t that wealth well-earned?<\/p>\n

The \u201cburden\u201d of giving money \u2014 and control \u2014 away<\/h3>\n

Bezos\u2019s fairly muted announcement may or may not pan out. The fruits of it also probably won\u2019t be seen right away.<\/p>\n

In his November CNN interview, Bezos called philanthropy hard. \u201cThere are a bunch of ways you can do ineffective things, too,\u201d he remarked. It\u2019s a surprisingly common sentiment among the ultra-rich. Elon Musk echoed this sentiment not long ago, saying, \u201cIf you care about the reality of doing good and not the perception of doing good, then it is very hard to give away money effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some truth to it, but it\u2019s also a line big donors have long used to justify taking their time. The narrative dates back to the days of Carnegie and Rockefeller, said Soskis. In one way, it served to \u201clegitimize the vast accumulation of wealth\u201d by presenting philanthropy as a great burden to shoulder. \u201cHeavy weighed the crown for the industrialist,\u201d he said. It painted an image of a \u201ccareworn philanthropist, who was so focused on giving away money well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time as well, there was this focus on the distinction between indiscriminate giving and scientific philanthropy, which was discriminating and focused and really paid attention to outcomes,\u201d said Soskis.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no dearth of experts and activists willing to put forward thoughtful, effective ideas on how wealth can be redistributed, and there\u2019s a huge gap in funding for the climate crisis in particular, which only received about 2 percent of philanthropic dollars as of a 2020 report. Gee pointed to the many climate justice groups \u2014 as well as intermediary funds that exist to figure out which grassroots groups need money \u2014 that are prepared to receive and spend grants today. \u201cThere are mechanisms, there are projects, there are solutions that are already being implemented,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In some ways, the billionaire philanthropist\u2019s pledge to give away their fortune is an acknowledgment that they have far more than they could ever spend on themselves, and that their wealth continues to accumulate at an astonishing clip. <\/strong>If Amazon\u2019s value increases, Bezos stands to passively add to his already enormous pile. Part of why Scott is uncommonly well-regarded even among critics of billionaire philanthropy is her super-charged pace of giving. Since divorcing Bezos in 2019, she has donated at least $14 billion. <\/strong>In contrast, Bezos, who has much more money than Scott\u2019s $28 billion, has given away about $2.4 billion, according to Forbes. That\u2019s about 2 percent of his wealth.<\/p>\n

Whether or not one agrees with Scott\u2019s rapid-fire approach, it\u2019s a counter-argument to the claim that giving billions away is so difficult that it takes decades, if not entire lifetimes. She\u2019s become the role model of a less prescriptive model of philanthropy that hands off decision-making power to the people receiving grants \u2014 often grassroots groups and schools \u2014 instead of the wealthy philanthropist writing the checks. But committing to this strategy requires ceding control.<\/p>\n

For Davies, it\u2019s one of the biggest questions he has about the Amazon founder\u2019s future as a philanthropist: Will Bezos be willing to give away not just money, but power as well?<\/p>\n

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\n Yes, I’ll give $120\/year<\/span>\n <\/p>\n

\n Yes, I’ll give $120\/year<\/span>\n <\/p>\n