By Sophie Alexander
Jeff Bezos has a habit of issuing splashy philanthropic promises while offering few details. The latest: a $100-million pledge to help rebuild Maui after August’s devastating wildfires.
Bezos and fiancee Lauren Sanchez have given $15.5 million over the last five months through the Bezos Maui Fund, according to a spokesperson for the billionaire. But he declined to name the recipients — and local officials and nonprofits on Hawaii’s second-biggest island are puzzled over where the money might have gone.
This isn’t the first time Bezos has offered few specifics on his philanthropy. There was the $10-billion climate pledge, nine-figure gifts to famous friends and a vague promise to give away the majority of his wealth — all of which came with little more than a dollar figure and subject area, if that.
Bezos’ spokesperson said in an email that the remaining $84.5 million pledged to help Maui “will be distributed in the coming years as the continuing needs reveal themselves.”
Keeping it vague has been a familiar pattern for Bezos in recent years. In 2020, he pledged $10 billion to battle climate change, though he gave almost no information on how he’d distribute that enormous amount of money or over what period of time. It took nine more months to make the first gifts. Since then, the Bezos Earth Fund has granted $1.84 billion, according to its website.
Read more: L.A. Times
1 Comment
It’s called “money laundering” to us common folk. All tax returns are pretty straightforward until funds filter to charities thru Arabella. That’s when the water gets really murky and vague.