Jeff Bezos has donated shares worth $684 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to multiple non-profit organizations.
Until recently, Bezos has regularly been criticized for his modest philanthropic efforts. In the meantime, he became the world’s richest person with an estimated fortune of $183.6 billion. Earlier this year, the billionaire founded his Earth Fund, designed to battle climate change. This $10 billion endeavor has been active since February this year.
In a recent Instagram post, Jeff Bezos announced that he had selected sixteen NGOs to receive grants from his Bezos Earth Fund.
The list of Grantees include:
- World Wildlife Fund
- World Resources Institute
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- The Nature Conservancy
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- NDN Collective
- Rocky Mountain Institute
- The Solutions Project
- Dream Corps Green For All
- Energy Foundation
- Environmental Defense Fund
- Eden Reforestation Projects
- The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund
- The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice
- ClimateWorks Foundation
In his Instagram post, Bezos explained that he had spent months working with a group of “incredibly smart people” whose mission is to battle climate change and its negative impact worldwide.
The sixteen organizations received 220,825 Amazon shares, whose worth is $684 million. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Jeff Bezos has donated stock totaling $856 million this year.
Earlier in November, Jeff Bezos sold Amazon stock worth $3 billion this year separately from his Earth Fund. All in all, so far in 2020, he sold Amazon stocks worth $10 billion.
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