The Amazon boss has pledged to donate most of his multi-billion dollar fortune to charities after giving $100 million to Dolly Parton while presenting an award to her.
- Nov 15, 2022
AceShowbiz - Jeff Bezos plans to donate the majority of his $124 billion fortune during his lifetime. The 58-year-old Amazon boss is keen to use the money to help fight climate change and for "unifying humanity" in the face of deep social and political divisions.
"Yeah, I do," he told CNN when asked if he intends to donate his wealth while still alive. The Blue Origin founder - who is the world's fourth richest person - added he and his partner Lauren Sanchez are "building the capacity to be able to give away this money." He explained, "The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way."
"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."
When he divorced MacKenzie Scott in 2019, Jeff paid out $38 billion to his ex-wife and to date she has donated over $12 billion to non-profit organisations since then.
The entrepreneur has already committed $10 billion over 10 years to the Bezos Earth Fund, which is co-chaired by his partner and is used for various environmental endevaours.
Over the weekend, Jeff and Lauren honoured Dolly Parton with the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, awarding her $100 million to donate to charity projects of her choosing.
The country legend said, "Wow! Did you say $100 million? When people are in a position to help, you should help. And I know that I've always said, I try to put my money where my heart is. And I think you do the same thing. I will do my best to do good things with this money."
