“Overnight, she became one of the richest women in the world. And almost immediately she started working to give the money away, and in a way that could change philanthropy.”
After years of criticism about Jeff Bezos’ lack of philanthropy, the Amazon founder and the world’s wealthiest man revealed yesterday that he would be donating $791 million in grants as part of his $10 billion Earth Fund to fight climate change. This comes several months after his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott announced in July that she would be giving away $1.7 billion to nonprofits. “The gift was stunning in scale and in approach,” wrote Stephanie Clifford in her Marker profile of one of America’s most mysterious and richest women. However, some remain skeptical of Bezos’s motives, noting that he donated to some of the very groups that have criticized Amazon’s growing environmental impact. In June, Amazon’s carbon footprint grew by 15% despite the retail behemoth’s green pledges.
