Skip to main content

New top story from Time: What Jeff Bezos’ Philanthropy Tells Us About His New Priorities—and What Change They May Bring

https://ift.tt/3zFiTgP

Money is power, so when the world’s richest man begins to spend his fortune, it’s worth paying attention to what he’s doing. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and newly minted pseudo-astronaut, has a lot of money to spend. On July 19, the day before he took a 10 minute joyride 66 miles (106 km) above the earth, his wealth increased by $13 billion , thanks to a bump in the Amazon’s share price. That flight cost $5.5 billion which, as global change groups hastened to point out, could have paid for a lot of global change. But for Bezos, it was not quite half the previous day’s wages.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Bezos announced in his post-flight press conference that he was donating $100 million to two high profile founders of non-profits: the celebrity chef (and former TIME cover subject) José Andrés, and Van Jones, the former Obama green jobs czar, CNN commentator and prominent climate change activist, to do as he said “what they want with.” The two donations were the inaugurating gifts of a Courage and Civility Award that Bezos was creating. “We need unifiers and not vilifiers,” Bezos said. “We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe. But they do that always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case.”

Until recently, Bezos had drawn considerable criticism for his desultory appetite for philanthropy. Polls make it clear that since America’s tax system largely protects income that is accrued via the growth of existing wealth and thus rewards the rich, its inhabitants also expect that their richer fellow citizens should be generous in spreading around their surplus. However, the very wealthy are also criticized when they do donate money because their money effects social change and that change needs to be thoughtfully managed. Perhaps because of this dichotomy, Bezos has been long on promises but delivered about $1.5 billion in actual funds, about 0.7% of his wealth. He is also one of the few mega-wealthy individuals who has not signed the Giving Pledge, a promise to give at least half of one’s wealth away.

There are those in the philanthropy industry who don’t find his reticence to spend unreasonable. “The fact that he didn’t do a lot of philanthropy up until now is kind of understandable,” says Brad Smith, president of Candid, an organization that monitors the charitable sector. “If you look at the old generation of philanthropists like Rockefeller and Carnegie, they pretty much built their businesses and then at some ripe age retired and became philanthropists.”

Others feel he still has some figuring out to do. “The most significant thing about Bezos’ philanthropy is the weird tension between its scale and its strange lack of consequence,” says Benjamin Kotsis, who researches philanthropy for the Urban Institute. “He’s committed a large amount of money. But it still feels very, very half-baked.” Compared to the approach taken by Bill Gates or Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, who has also made headlines for her recent giving—or even Bezos’ own approach to his business— the billionaire’s giving feels slapdash, says Kotsis. “I have a sense of an inchoate donor, somebody whose philanthropic identity has not fully congealed yet.”

Let the record show that Bezos has been thinking about how to give his money away at least since 2017, when he asked for public input about how to operate “at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact.” His two new recipients each seem to fulfill one of those aims: Andrés is known for arriving at the sites of recent disasters and feeding people with his organization World Central Kitchen; and Jones has started several non-profits, most notably Dream Corps, that seek to move the needle on such big sociological issues as climate change, inequitable incarceration and racial equity.

It’s not apparent whether Jones and Andrés applied for the funding, although Bezos had earlier pledged to support Jones’ environmental organization. It also comes with very few strings attached, which communicates a high level of trust in the grantees. “You bet on me and I appreciate it,” Jones told Bezos. “And I appreciate you for lifting the ceilings off people’s dreams.” This reminded many in the philanthropic world of Scott’s style of giving.

Read More: MacKenzie Scott Gave Away $6 Billion Last Year. It’s Not as Easy as It Looks

But the similarities between the former couple end there. Scott tends to make her gifts quietly, with an almost reluctant don’t-look-at-me post on Medium to announce the gifts, while Bezos announces his at moments of intense public scrutiny. And while Scott spreads her wealth with precision, Bezos tends to use shock-and-awe dumps of money. A week before unloading $100 million each on Jones and Andrés, he committed $200 million to D.C.’s Smithsonian museum and last year made the largest single philanthropic pledge of 2020, launching the Earth Fund, a climate change charity, with a promise of $10 billion. It joins the Bezos Day One fund, announced with a $2 billion pledge in 2018, (when he was still married to Scott,) which addresses homelessness and education.

This blockbuster approach of announcing massive initiatives and then figuring out the details is not necessarily better or worse, say some philanthropic experts. “I think he’s thinking about the size of the gifts in terms of messaging,” says Candid’s Smith. “When he drops these $100 million chunks, he’s making a big statement about climate change, just like he seemed to be making a big statement [on July 20] about civility.” There’s a precedent for this too, notes Smith. “We’ve seen this at different moments in history with philanthropy when governments and societies seem to be in gridlock and at an impasse, philanthropists will step forward and say ‘Dammit, this is important.'” Ted Turner did this in 2000, when Congress could not agree whether to pay the money the U.S. owed to the U.N.

One thing is clear about Bezos’ spending priorities. He sees a future in space both for his commercial and philanthropic investment. His space tourism business is off to a robust start. And buried in the details of the 2020 Earth Fund grants are the finer points of how his investments are to be spent. The World Resources Institute got $100 million partly to “to develop a satellite-based monitoring system to advance natural climate solutions around the world” and the Environmental Defense Fund got the same amount, to help further the “completion and launch of MethaneSAT, a satellite that will… locate and measure sources of methane pollution around the world.” He sees space travel as a crucial part of solving the climate puzzle.

This is not to say that Bezos is not also splashing around some money on problems right here on Earth. But it does not seem to be his first love. “You can make a valid case for space philanthropy if you’re not seen as ignoring the rest of the Earthbound populace,” says the Urban Institute’s Kotsis. He is reminded of a concept Charles Dickens advanced in Bleak House: telescopic philanthropy. “People love to direct their philanthropic gaze to foreign shores as a way of ignoring what’s proximate and potentially most implicates them,” says Kotsis. “I think Bezos has opened himself up to that critique.”

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Powered Scooters Charge City’s Transportation Recovery

Powered Scooters Charge City’s Transportation Recovery By Jason Hyde The SFMTA is releasing its next round of Powered Scooter Share permits on July 1. Scooters remain a sustainable mode of travel and a complement to Muni and public transit service as the city recovers from the pandemic and San Franciscans begin to travel more. The SFMTA’s Powered Scooter Share Program is essential in ensuring that shared scooter operations support the city’s economic recovery in a safe, sustainable, and equitable way.  The SFMTA received four submittals for the permit program and will issue permits to two operators : Spin and Lime. Permits will be in effect for a one-year term, with the option to extend for another year at the discretion of the SFMTA based on compliance with various program metrics. While the new permit program does not set a limit on the number of scooters each operator may deploy, it does limit the overall citywide fleet size at 10,000. Starting at a base of 2,000 scooters...

Muni Highlights in 2021: More Service to More Destinations

Muni Highlights in 2021: More Service to More Destinations By Jonathan Streeter Our goal for Muni in 2021 was to match the service we offer with the changing travel patterns of an unpredictable era, as San Franciscans grappled with a second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.  To achieve this, we expanded on the core routes that formed the nucleus of our early 2020 pandemic network by adding and improving service in key areas throughout San Francisco. We focused on access in neighborhoods where essential workers live, as well as on adding service in busy corridors and even creating new lines. At the beginning of the year, even with our reduced schedule, 91% of San Franciscans were within two or three blocks of a Muni stop. This included 100% of residents in San Francisco’s neighborhoods identified by the Muni Service Equity Strategy . By summer 2021, we added enough additional service so that 98% of San Franciscans were within two or three blocks of a Muni stop. To the relief of ma...

Watch San Francisco’s Bike Network Bloom

Watch San Francisco’s Bike Network Bloom By Eillie Anzilotti From just a few stretches of scattered lanes in 2013, San Francisco’s protected bike network now stretches like a green web connecting more and more of the city. See how much has changed over the last eight years:   In just the blink of an eye, San Francisco has become one of the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. To date, San Francisco has 464 miles of bikeways, including: 42 miles of protected bike lanes 78 miles of off-street paths and trails 21 miles of buffered bike lanes 139 miles of striped bike lanes As we’ve expanded the network of safer bicycle routes through San Francisco, more people are choosing to ride bicycles for recreation and transportation every year. Since 2006, travel by bicycle has grown by 184 percent citywide. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, bike counts hit an all-time high: in 2019, approximately 52,000 bicyclists were observed at 37 locations during peak periods, a 14 percent incre...

FOX NEWS: Woman who had to cancel birthday trip because of coronavirus recreates entire vacation at home in viral video

Woman who had to cancel birthday trip because of coronavirus recreates entire vacation at home in viral video There will be no crying for this birthday. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2Xwfa4W

New Muni Service Changes Start Saturday, August 19

New Muni Service Changes Start Saturday, August 19 By Clive Tsuma 28R 19th Avenue will run on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. starting Monday, August 21.  Back to School  With SFUSD students returning to school August 16, many families who rely on Muni to get to school will see service increase after school as part of the new schedule. Because Muni vehicles often become crowded during morning peak hours and sometimes pass up stops when there is not enough room for more riders, families are encouraged to plan their trips ahead of time and hop on Muni early to make sure students get to school on time.  With every public school in the San Francisco Unified School District being served by at least one Muni route , students can expect extra Muni service on the first day of the school this fall and continue providing service throughout the school year. While the Muni service changes won’t be implemented until August 19, school tripper service will be offered starting Au...

Muni Metro Fix It! Week Improves Rail Service, Safety and Reliability

Muni Metro Fix It! Week Improves Rail Service, Safety and Reliability By Jessie Liang Overhead Line Department replacing wire and custodians cleaning metro station during Fix It! Week, April 19, 2022 A new quarterly effort to increase work time to accomplish necessary Muni Metro system maintenance in April 2022 was a resounding success. Here is a behind-the-scenes video recap . The maintenance initiatives aimed at making subway operations more reliable and preventing feature breakdowns. The maintenance teams were able to perform an entire month of work within the 10 days when subway service was substituted by bus service to provide SFMTA workers the extended Fix It! Week work window.  Every night after Muni Metro subway service hours, SFMTA maintenance crews work to maintain the tracks and equipment underground. On most nights, this gives our teams only about two hours to get work done. During the first Fix It! Week, from April 14 to April 23, 2022, buses provided substitute s...

San Francisco's Taxi Medallion Program Moves Onward

San Francisco's Taxi Medallion Program Moves Onward By In early October, a San Francisco jury found that the SFMTA did not breach its taxi medallion program Lender Agreements with the San Francisco Federal Credit Union.  Throughout this litigation, the SFMTA has continued to focus its attention on supporting purchased medallion holders and drivers.  In fact, over a year ago, the SFMTA made an offer to settle the lawsuit by providing millions of dollars in loan forgiveness to medallion holders.  Unfortunately, the SF Credit Union opted to continue its lawsuit against us.  With the trial now behind us, we are hopeful that the Credit Union will engage in the necessary dialogue with us and agree to participate in a loan forgiveness program.  We understand the challenges faced by individuals who purchased taxi medallions.  Specifically, the fixed $250,000 price for a medallion is unsustainable, and needs to be lowered. Unfor...

FOX NEWS: Man built ‘hillbilly hot tub’ in backyard out of boredom: 'It is not very efficient'

Man built ‘hillbilly hot tub’ in backyard out of boredom: 'It is not very efficient' He decided to build his very own budget hot tub using an old, pre-formed pond base he had dug out from his garden. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2Y7FilX

Muni Forward Gets San Francisco Moving

Muni Forward Gets San Francisco Moving By Shalon Rogers The SFMTA’s Muni Forward program is delivering transit reliability improvements that are transforming the Muni system and enhancing the customer experience. With 80 miles of upgrades since 2014 that often bring travel time savings of 20% or more, Muni Forward is making a big difference in how San Francisco moves.  These upgrades, which can be seen in this Muni Forward Photo Map , draw from a “toolkit” of over 20 reliability and customer experience improvements, such as transit lanes that provided dedicated space for Muni vehicles to cut through traffic, transit bulbs that reduce delays at transit stops and traffic signals with transit priority that give the green light to transit vehicles as they approach the intersection, when possible. The recently completed Van Ness Improvement Project thrust Muni Forward back into the spotlight with San Francisco’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor. While the Van Ness Improve...

Riders are Feeling the Difference on Geary

Riders are Feeling the Difference on Geary By The results are in: the Geary Rapid Project has delivered a faster, more reliable bus trip and a safer street, according to the SFMTA’s recently published evaluation report for the project.   A faster, more reliable bus ride  One out of every ten passengers stepping onto a Muni vehicle will ride on Geary Blvd., which makes reducing travel time on the corridor a key piece of improving transit in the city. The transit lanes installed as part of the Geary Rapid Project protect buses from traffic congestion, while smarter traffic signals allow buses to get green lights more often. Similar transit upgrades have been made across the city as part of the Muni Forward program , making your next San Francisco destination closer than ever.  Transit travel time improved after the quick-build phase of the Geary Rapid Project in late 2018 and early 2019, and again after the full project was completed in 2021 — with savings as g...