Jeff Bezos told me that he intends to give away the majority of his $124 billion fortune in his lifetime.CNNin an exclusive interview Monday. This is the first time that Amazon founders have committed to doing this.
The billionaire, who is the world’s fourth-richest person, according to BloombergLauren Sanchez, Lauren’s girlfriend, told him that he was preparing for the wedding. “to be able to give away this money.”
However, he hasn’t figured out the best way to do so, as he wanted to maximize the impact of his donations.
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,”CNN was informed by him. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar. And there are a bunch of ways that you could do ineffective things.”
Bezos previously pledged $10 billion to combat climate change in an initiative called The Bezos Earth Fund. He said that unity is a trait that’s necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change, as he criticized politicians and social media for doing the opposite and encouraging divisions. He said that he plans to use his billions towards people he considers worthy. “unifiers.”
He also donated $2Billion to unhoused families and help start preschools. On Saturday, the couple was married AnnouncementDolly Parton received $100 million in philanthropist and singer Dolly Parton’s annual gift, The Bezos Award for Courage and Civility.
Bezos has also made several nine-figure donations to institutions like the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.
“I just feel honored to be able to be a part of what they’re doing for this world,” Bezos told CNN.
Bezos was previously criticized for not signing the Giving Pledge, a commitment by many of the nation’s wealthiest people to give away at least half their fortunes, started in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett and others. Bezos’ ex-wife, author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott signed the pledge in 2019 after their divorce.
