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MacKenzie Bezos, one of the richest women in the world, says she's going to give at least half of her fortune to a charity. She was seen here in April 2018 with her former husband, the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
Jörg Carstensen / alliance photo via Getty Image
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Jörg Carstensen / alliance photo via Getty Image
MacKenzie Bezos, one of the richest women in the world, says she's going to give at least half of her fortune to a charity. She was seen here in April 2018 with her former husband, the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
Jörg Carstensen / alliance photo via Getty Image
MacKenzie Bezos, who divorced Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, as part of his divorce, signed the Giving Pledge, thus pledging to donate more than half of his fortune to charities or philanthropic.
"We all come by the gifts we have to offer through an endless series of influences and lucky breaks that we will never fully understand," wrote Bezos in a letter announcing his promise. "In addition to the assets that life has fed into me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share."
As one of the richest women in the world and the ex-wife of a billionaire who has not signed the deed of donation, Bezos is the most prominent name in the list of new signatories to this commitment.
Jeff Bezos celebrated the news by saying via Twitter"MacKenzie is going to be amazing, thoughtful and effective in philanthropy, and I'm proud of her."
MacKenzie Bezos, a novelist, quoted in Annie Dillard The writing life:
"Do not store what looks good for a later place in the book, or for another book … The impulse to save something good for a better place is the signal to spend it now. Something of there will be something better … Everything you do not give freely and abundantly is lost to you, you open your safe and find ashes. "
By signing the Giving Pledge, wealthy benefactors promise to donate more than half of their assets, either during their lifetime or after their death. The organization does not require donors who they name the organizations or causes that they plan to support with the bulk of their fortune.
Bezos said that she would think carefully about how she distributes money. And in what could be a sign that she intends to exceed by far the requirement of the promise to donate more than half of her money, she added: "It will take time , of effort and care, but I will not wait, and I will keep until the safe is empty. "
In the past, MacKenzie Bezos has supported several social and charitable initiatives, ranging from funding cancer research and Alzheimer's disease to promoting the equality of marriage. And she is currently Executive Director of Bystander Revolution, an anti-bullying group that she founded in 2013.
In late 2018, Bezos and her husband at the time announced that they would spend $ 2 billion to support homeless families. And they gave millions to TheDream.US, which offers scholarships to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors.
The Giving Pledge was launched in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet. And even though it has been praised as a very public source of inspiration for anyone who wants to help others, this commitment has also been criticized for the lack of an application tool of the law.
Those who sign the Giving Pledge "morally commit to donating more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charity," according to the group's website. And while wealthy donors use the organization to exchange ideas on how to use their money effectively, their funds are not pooled for a common purpose.
To further complicate matters, many of the wealthy signatories of the promise create family trusts and charitable foundations – steps that, while having the potential to spread their wealth, can also make it difficult to define when their personal promise has been honored.
More than 200 wealthy philanthropists have now committed to the Giving Pledge, the group announced Tuesday. Paul Sciarra, co-founder of Pinterest, and his wife, Jennifer, Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, and his wife, Tegan, and Ryan D. "Jume" Jumonville, owner of the United Networks of America healthcare company.
The class of promises this year also includes Stewart and Sandy Bainum, whose fortune comes in part from Stewart Bainum's long leadership roles at Choice Hotels International and Artis Senior Living.
In announcing their commitment, the Bainums wrote:
"Historically, we have chosen to discreetly allocate our philanthropic capital, but we are convinced that membership in" The Giving Pledge "could also motivate other people, and we are particularly proud that this commitment also expresses the wishes of our two sons, who share the same conviction, his greatest call is to make a difference in the lives of others. "
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