Jeff Bezos donates $10 billion to fight climate change
What's the story
The world's richest person made the single-largest charitable contribution in 2020, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of top donations, a $10 billion gift that is intended to help fight climate change.
Amazon founder and CEO, whose worth as estimated by Forbes stands at $188 billion, launched the Bezos Earth Fund with that contribution.
Fund
The fund has paid out $790 million to 16 groups
The fund, which supports non-profit organizations involved in the climate crisis, has paid out $790 million to 16 groups, according to the Chronicle.
Setting aside Bezos's gift, the sum total of the top 10 donations last year stood at $2.6 billion, which was the lowest since 2011, even as many billionaires increased their wealth in the stock market rally.
Data
Bezos's wealth surged by 63%, from $113 to $184 billion
According to the left-leaning Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies, from March 18 through December 7, 2020, Bezos's wealth surged by 63%, from $113 billion to $184 billion.
Donations
Other charitable donations by renowned people
Phil Knight and his wife made the second and third largest donations last year. The couple gave over $900 million to the Knight Foundation and $300 million to the University of Oregon.
Fred Kummer, founder of HBE Corporation, and his wife, June, gave $300 million to the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife made the fourth largest donation.
Information
Zuckerberg was criticized and called to testify handling of disinformation
Zuckerberg, whose wealth doubled to $105 billion in the March-to-December period, according to Americans for Tax Fairness and Institute for Policy Studies, has been criticized and called to testify before Congress for his company's handling of disinformation in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Details
Chronicle will publish list of 50 biggest donors in February
Bezos and the Zuckerbergs made up the next spots on last year's top 10 list, with $100 million donations; Bezos for Feeding America to aid food banks across the country and the Zuckerbergs to the same election security group.
In February, the Chronicle will publish its list of the 50 biggest donors, which counts cumulative donations, not individual gifts.
Information
Two billionaires who were not included in the Chronicle's list
Two billionaires who donated heavily to charity last year, MacKenzie Scott, Bezos's former wife, and Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, did not make the Chronicle's list because no single donation of theirs was large enough to qualify.