Jeff Bezos starting $2B charitable fund
SEATTLE — Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said last week that he is giving $2 billion to start a fund that will open preschools in low-income neighborhoods and give money to nonprofits that helps homeless families.
Bezos, whose stake in Amazon is worth about $160 billion, said that he’ll call it the Bezos Day One Fund. An Amazon.com Inc. spokeswoman confirmed that the money will all come from Bezos, though there are few details about how the fund will operate.
In a post to his Twitter account Thursday, Bezos said one part of the fund will give money to organizations and groups that provide shelter and food to young homeless families. The other part will launch and operate free preschools in low-income communities, where “the child will be the customer.”
It’s not yet known what his preschools will look like except that they will be based on the teaching philosophy of Maria Montessori, which focuses on individual learning and social-emotional development.
Bezos, who founded Amazon as an online bookstore more than two decades ago, has seen his wealth surge along with Amazon’s stock. Forbes magazine placed him at the top of its list of billionaires for the first time this year, surpassing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett.
Bezos’ wealth has allowed him to pay for side ventures, including starting space exploration company Blue Origin and buying The Washington Post newspaper.
By choosing to focus his philanthropy on homelessness and early education, Bezos is likely influenced both by his parents’ Bezos Family Foundation and by his adopted hometown of Seattle, however mixed some natives may feel about the city’s growing affordability crisis that’s been largely attributed to the success of Amazon.
Bezos, and Amazon, have been criticized in Seattle for not doing more to help the needy and have become focal points in the booming region’s angry debate about traffic, housing prices and homelessness. When Seattle passed a tax in May on large companies to fight the city’s growing homelessness crisis, Amazon balked and even temporarily halted construction planning on a new highrise building near its headquarters. City leaders quickly rescinded the levy.
The fight soured many more locals on Amazon and Bezos, and also overshadowed the growing portfolio of philanthropy they had done in the city.