Jeff Bezos, a man worth approximately $124.1 billion, has promised to donate the majority of his wealth within his lifetime. Without any specifics on how or where the money he plans to donate would go, or what percentage he deems a “majority,” Bezos made the benign promise of benefaction in an interview with CNN. His philanthropic goals include fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity against social and political division, CNN reported.
And there is no person more unifying than Dolly Parton. Bezos has awarded the ten-time Grammy-winning artist and multimillionaire $100 million to distribute to a charity of her choice as a recipient of Bezos’ Courage and Civility award. Leave it to Amazon's founder to outsource activism.
Related | Dolly Parton Will Save Us
Bezos shared a video from the awards ceremony, where he honored the country singer for embodying the ideals of the award.
\u201cWe\u2019ve just announced a new Courage and Civility award recipient \u2014 @DollyParton, who leads with her heart, and will put this $100 million award to great use helping so many people. She joins prior awardees, @VanJones68 and @Chefjoseandres. Congrats, Dolly!\u201d— Jeff Bezos (@Jeff Bezos) 1668292163
Bezos is one among many billionaires promising to redistribute their wealth. Founder of Microsoft Bill Gates promised to give away “virtually all” of his estimated $114 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates also co-founded The Giving Pledge, a signature-based campaign to encourage the super-rich to donate the "majority" of their wealth. (How much money this equates to, exactly, is once again not disclosed.)
Bezos, however, is not among the philanthropists who have signed onto The Giving Pledge. The billionaire told CNN he’s still figuring out philanthropy.
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way… It’s not easy,” Bezos said. “Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, and a bunch of very smart teammates, and I’m finding…that philanthropy is very similar. It’s not easy, it’s really hard.”
Hopefully, he gets it right in time for the tax write-off.
Photo via BFA/ Angela Pham
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