Jeff Bezos has a behavior of issuing splashy philanthropic guarantees whereas providing few particulars. The most recent: a $100 million pledge to assist rebuild Maui after August’s devastating wildfires.
Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sanchez have given $15.5 million over the previous 5 months by way of the Bezos Maui Fund, in line with a spokesperson for the billionaire. However he declined to call the recipients — and native officers and nonprofits on Hawaii’s second-biggest island are puzzled at the place the cash may need gone.
This isn’t the primary time Bezos has provided few specifics on his philanthropy. There was the $10 billion climate pledge, nine-figure presents to well-known associates and a obscure promise to give away the majority of his wealth — all of which got here with little greater than a greenback determine and topic space, if that.
Whereas different billionaires are additionally secretive with their giving, Bezos, the world’s second-richest particular person, stands out partly as a result of his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, has redefined what it means to be an ultra-rich philanthropist. Scott, 53, has donated greater than $16.5 billion since their 2019 divorce, and releases a listing of recipients on her web site, together with greater than 360 organizations that obtained cash prior to now 12 months.
Bezos, 60, for his half, has donated greater than $3 billion over that interval. However that’s far off of the billions extra he’s promised to provide away with few fast particulars.
‘Maximum publicity with minimum accountability’
The apply presents the Amazon.com Inc. founder “maximum publicity with minimum accountability,” stated Benjamin Soskis, a senior analysis affiliate on the City Institute’s Heart on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.
Whereas donors aren’t legally required to say the place the cash goes except presents have been produced from a tax-exempt group, “Bezos has gained the benefits of public attention and in exchange he needs to provide more information,” Soskis stated.
Bezos’ spokesperson stated in an electronic mail that the remaining $84.5 million pledged to assist Maui “will be distributed in the coming years as the continuing needs reveal themselves.”
Preserving it obscure has been a well-recognized sample for Bezos in recent times. In 2020, he pledged $10 billion to battle climate change, although he gave nearly no data on how he’d dole out that giant amount of cash or over what time period. It took 9 extra months to make the primary presents. Since then, the Bezos Earth Fund has granted $1.84 billion, in line with its web site.
A 12 months later, he launched the Braveness & Civility Award, which thus far has given $100 million grants to Van Jones, Jose Andrés and Dolly Parton to distribute to different nonprofit organizations. Bezos boasted on the time that the annual award requires little accountability of its recipients.
“No bureaucracy, no committees, they just do what they want,” Bezos advised a crowd gathered in Van Horn, Texas, simply after he went into suborbital house for the primary time.
Bezos has been equally hazy about future giving. He advised CNN in 2022 that he deliberate to provide away the vast majority of his then-$124 billion fortune throughout his lifetime, with out specifying potential recipients or a timetable. He’s since added more than $52 billion to his web value, in line with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
No person is aware of
Bezos’ and Sanchez’s pledge was the splashiest dedication to assist Maui after fires broke out across the northwest part of the island, killing roughly 100 folks and leaving thousands more homeless. Sanchez stated in an Aug. 11 Instagram put up that the cash will “help Maui get back on its feet now and over the coming years.”
However as months have handed, it’s unclear when and the place the promised cash has been distributed.
“Nobody’s heard anything at all,” stated Angus McKelvey, the state senator representing West Maui, including that he’s disenchanted within the lack of expertise and collaboration. “Had they simply consulted with the community and myself and other representatives, we would’ve told them, ‘Take your money and put it over here.’”
Trisha Kehaulani Watson, vp of native Hawaiian nonprofit ‘Āina Momona, said they haven’t gotten any of the cash and was unaware of anybody in her community of nonprofits who has.
A half-dozen different nonprofits engaged on the island after the hearth, together with the Maui United Manner and the Folks’s Fund of Maui, additionally stated they haven’t obtained funds from Bezos and Sanchez.
Some speculated the cash went to the Hawaii Neighborhood Basis, which has raised greater than $177 million for its Maui Sturdy Fund. A consultant for the group stated they “don’t have any information” on the vacation spot of Bezos’s pledge, although they did obtain a $2 million donation in September from the inspiration began by Bezos’ dad and mom.
Bezos and Sanchez, who personal an property on Maui’s La Perouse Bay, aren’t the one wealthy residents who’ve promised to chip in.
Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson began the Folks’s Fund of Maui in August with preliminary contributions of $5 million every. The fund has since distributed about $40 million on to greater than 8,100 folks. Scott additionally donated $5 million to the Hawaii Neighborhood Basis.
