Jeff Bezos says he plans to give away most of his estimated $121 billion fortune during his lifetime, but that it’s “really hard” to donate money effectively.
The Amazon
AMZN,
founder said he planned to part with most of his wealth in response to a question during a Monday interview on “CNN This Morning.”
“When you look at your net worth, it’s too much money to even spend in a lifetime. Do you plan to give away the majority of your wealth in your lifetime?” asked CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas.
“Yeah, I do,” Bezos said. “The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way. It’s not easy.”
Bezos noted that building Amazon “was not easy,” and that he and Lauren Sanchez, his partner and vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, have experienced a similar learning curve in creating a charity organization.
“I’m finding, and I think Lauren is finding the same thing, that philanthropy is very similar,” he continued. “It’s not easy. It’s really hard. And there are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too. So we’re building the capacity to be able give away this money.”
Bezos’s latest philanthropic move was to award country music legend Dolly Parton with his Courage and Civility Award, a $100 million prize that Parton can spend on her favorite causes. Parton, herself, has long been an active philanthropist on issues ranging from childhood literacy in her native Tennessee, to helping to fund research on a COVID-19 vaccine.
Bezos, currently the fourth richest person in the world according to Forbes, was relatively quiet about his philanthropy until a few years ago. His top causes are climate change, homelessness and preschool education. He said in 2021 that he would spend $10 billion over 10 years to address the climate crisis with his Bezos Earth Fund.
He’s previously given his $100 million Courage and Civility award to Van Jones, a CNN
WBD,
commentator and racial justice activist, and José Andrés, the chef and founder of World Central Kitchen.
When Bezos was still married to his former wife MacKenzie Scott — who is now one of the country’s most prominent philanthropists — the couple launched a $2 billion philanthropic pledge. That money is still being used to fund groups serving families who are experiencing homelessness and to build a nationwide network of free preschools for low-income children called the Bezos Academy schools.
Bezos, unlike his ex-wife Scott, has not signed on to the Giving Pledge, the initiative started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet to encourage billionaires to give away most of their money either in their lifetimes or in their wills.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
