‘It’s Really Hard,’ Says Jeff Bezos on Donating Effectively While Ex-Wife Gives Away $2 Billion
After years of receiving flak for not actively participating in philanthropy, Jeff Bezos, the world’s fourth-richest person, told CNN his take on big donations. The Amazon founder said that “it’s really hard” to donate big amounts effectively. On the same day, his ex-wife and known philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced that she had given away close to $2 billion in seven months. The difference in both their approaches was clearly highlighted when Scott revealed her thought process behind donating large sums of money to multiple charities. While Bezos seems inclined to donate in a “levered way”, Scott believes in letting the charities she picks decide what to do with the funds.
Unlike many of the world’s wealthiest people, Bezos has neither signed The Giving Pledge– which would show his commitment to contribute a majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes– nor given any concrete details about his philanthropy plans. The criticism regarding this has been widespread. In contrast, Scott pledged to give away half her net worth in her lifetime in 2019.
Hinting at his methodical approach to giving away a small chunk of his fortune, Bezos said that the “hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way.” He said this altruism is not easy, comparing the task to building e-commerce giant Amazon from the ground up. “It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding…that charity, philanthropy, is very similar,” Bezos said.
Bezos’ take on altruism seems to lie opposite to Scott, who has given away close to $4 billion to 465 organisations in less than a year. Around half of this amount was donated to 343 organisations in the last seven months.
According to Money Control, Scott said that her strategy behind philanthropy involves providing monetary assistance to credible organisations and letting them have the agency to decide how to utilise these funds. She said, “I needn’t ask those I care about what to say to them, or what to do for them… I can share what I have with them to stand behind them as they speak and act for themselves.”
