September 18, 2018 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Jeff Bezos’s $2 billion philanthropic pledge has the charity world buzzing, but details are sparse. The Chronicle decided to take a closer look at the tweet in which he made his announcement for whatever clues it may provide.
Optimistic Outlook
Bezos received 48,000 responses to his June 2017 tweet asking for help deciding where to focus his philanthropic efforts, and questions surrounding the eventual shape of his philanthropy were the subject of numerous articles, tweets, op-eds, and academic papers.
Bezos seems to share the optimistic mind-set of another Seattle tech icon, Bill Gates. Programs supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation confront a lot of sickness, hatred, and despair, yet optimism is a regular refrain in their work. “Despite the headlines,” they wrote in their annual letter this year, “we see a world that’s getting better.”
Family Matters
Lots of talk of legacy here. Are Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos thinking about a family foundation? Like Walmart founder Sam and Helen Walton, the Bezoses have four children. The Walton grandchildren are now emerging as leaders of the retailer’s legacy, the Walton Family Foundation. In forty years, will the Bezos grandkids continue to steward the Amazon founder’s gifts, or will they be locked in a courtroom battle over donor intent?
Demanding Boss
Amazon has developed a reputation as one of the more difficult companies to work for in the new economy. Bezos seems to be signaling that he may be equally demanding of those who participate in his philanthropic efforts.
It seems notable that he makes no mention of nonprofit workers.
Far-Flung Interests
Other philanthropists have placed big bets. Mark Zuckerberg started his giving with an ill-fated $100 million investment to the Newark school system, for instance. Bezos has said that his space-flight venture, Blue Origin, is likely to dominate his future work, more so than his philanthropy.
Stewardship is an interesting term for his ownership of the Washington Post, a for-profit business. The Amazon founder is not alone in treating the purchase of a news outlet as a way to provide a public good. Other examples include Mark Benioff’s purchase of Time Magazine and Laurene Powell Jobs’s acquisition of The Atlantic . Will Bezos broaden his interest in media through further media buys or through gifts, as another tech donor, Craig Newmark , has done?
Bezos and his family have made gifts totaling about $160 million in the past decade. Recent donations include $33 million to TheDream.US, a charity that provides scholarships to undocumented students. In September, he and his wife made their first political contribution of note, with a $10 million donation to With Honor, a veterans charity.
Big Questions Unanswered
Bezos has said that the new fund will be like a traditional grant-making philanthropy, but he’s left himself a lot of wiggle room. Will he sink Amazon stock into a donor-advised fund and make contributions as he sees fit? Will he create a traditional foundation and adhere to payout and reporting requirements? Or will he largely avoid the gaze of federal regulators and instead launch a limited-liability company, giving him the options of investing in for-profits and nonprofits and making political donations? His statement says his philanthropy will invest in nonprofit charities and schools, but is that all it will do? So far, it’s not clear.
Conflicting Messages
Mary’s Place lists its core values as love, respect, accessibility, hope, stewardship, and collaboration. At a time when many newly minted philanthropists have become interested in systemwide strategies for the public good, Bezos is starting off with a frontline charity that serves people in need day in and day out.
Others note that Amazon was dead set against a tax proposal in Seattle that would have raised revenue to help the homeless. The online retail giant pushed hard against the measure, which ultimately failed.
Taking Risks
Bezos clearly wants to bring the business lessons he learned building Amazon to education nonprofits. He might want to check in with Zuckerberg and Gates, who have each owned up to it when things haven’t gone as planned and they had to recalibrate their strategies. Improving education is a complex issue. Here, Bezos suggests that he’ll bring the Silicon Valley “fail forward” mentality to education, by accepting that not every effort will pay off and that he’ll try to learn from his mistakes.
