The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and his wife, MacKenzie, announced Thursday a $ 2 billion fund to help homeless families and create kindergartens.

"Two billion dollars is a lot of money, and it could do a lot of good," said Henry Berman, CEO of Exponent Philanthropy, a non-profit organization that supports modest-minded philanthropic groups.

Bezos is the richest person in the world, with an estimated value of $ 164 billion. The way he will use this fortune for philanthropy has been a topic of discussion, especially after June 2017, when he solicited ideas on Twitter to find ways to change things.

Now this question has been answered, at least in part. On Thursday, Bezos sent a long tweet presenting a $ 2 billion Bezos Day One fund that will support two charities, one aimed at homeless families and the other at the creation of quality preschool centers in underserved communities.

An impressive $ 2 billion immediately places the Day One Fund among the 50 largest philanthropic foundations in the country, according to the Foundation Foundation's registrations, which track philanthropic organizations.

The top five in 2015, the last year for which figures are available, were the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with $ 40 billion, the Duke Endowment with $ 33 billion, the Ford Foundation with $ 12 billion.

In his tweet, Bezos said the exciting questions to ask were: "Where is the good in the world, and how can we spread it, where are the opportunities to make things better?"

The two funds he presented Thursday are trying to answer this question.

The First Day Families Fund will award annual leadership awards to organizations that are actively engaged in providing shelter and hunger support to families with young children.

His vision statement will come from a fundraising campaign, "No Child Sleeps Outside," for Mary's Place, a Seattle homeless shelter that has donated more than 47,000 square feet to one of its buildings and houses 200 women. children and families.

The Day 1 Academics Fund plans to launch and operate a network of free, high-quality Montessori-style nursery schools in underserved communities. Bezos said the network would give the organization the opportunity to "learn, invent and improve," using the same principles that led to Amazon's growth.

The name "Day 1" comes from the insistence of Bezos on the fact that it is still Day 1 on Amazon. In his annual letter to shareholders in 2016, he wrote: "Day 2 is a stasis, followed by a lack of relevance, followed by an atrocious and painful decline followed by death, and that is why it is always day 1 ".

The headquarters of Amazon in Seattle also calls the day 1. And whenever the seat moves, the new building takes this name.

How will he be given?

The biggest immediate question is exactly how Bezoses will organize the gift. From the tweet, it is unclear whether they create a foundation or other type of organization to distribute the money.

A foundation would have a very specific legal framework, with the $ 2 billion earmarked for an endowment fund, of which at least 5% should be donated each year.

"It would be unusual to have a gift of this magnitude to not start creating a foundation," said Amir Pasic, Dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

"Donations of $ 100,000 or more usually go to higher education or hospitals because they can absorb them," Pasic said.

The subject of planned Bezoses gifts is politically irreproachable, Berman said.

"That's apple pie and Chevrolet stuff." Who in their right mind could oppose trying to help the homeless and underserved preschool kids? " he said.

It comes after Amazon has fought a fierce fight against Seattle this summer because of an entry tax that would have allowed the city to raise money to pay for the services of aid to homeless. Housing costs have increased significantly in the region, resulting in what city officials have called a homelessness crisis.

Many in the Seattle area believe that the homelessness problem has been exacerbated by the influx of thousands of highly paid technology workers at Amazon who have raised rents and chased low-income residents.

Whatever the Bezoses do, no one in the philanthropy world necessarily expects from them that they use their money in the traditional way of the rich.

For example, they did not sign the famous Giving Pledge, sometimes called the Billionaires' Pledge. It was created in 2010 by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Those who sign the non-binding commitment are committed to donating at least half of their net worth to philanthropy, whether in their lifetime or at their death. In 2018, 183 people or couples have signed.

Jeff Bezos has always been an entrepreneur and a maverick, Pasic said. "He will not follow any pre-established route on how he uses his fortune, it will be very interesting to watch."

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