Jeff Bezos tried to pull off a Mackenzie Scott, but philanthropy doesn’t come as naturally to him as business or publicity does. The Amazon co-founder made headlines a few months ago when he generously proclaimed and promised $100 million to wildfire-ravaged Maui. The billionaire, worth $178 billion, has paid a mere $15.5 million so far. Funnily enough, no one, including local officials or nonprofits, knows where this money went or when the rest will come. Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, have donated $15.5 million through the Bezos Maui Fund, but there was no revelation of who was at the receiving end of this generosity.
Unlike his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott, who has donated more than $16.5 billion since 2019 and kept matters crystal clear with a literal list of recipients on her website, including more than 360 organizations, Bezos is way more secretive. Someone wise once said to keep every good deed a secret, and the centibillionaire took it seriously. The man, who recently turned 60, hasn’t turned a new leaf and continues his vague promises.
As Benjamin Soskis, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, stated, the Amazon co-founder is fond of “maximum publicity with minimum accountability.” According to Bloomberg, Bezos’ spokesperson said in an email that the remaining $84.5 million pledged to help Maui “will be distributed in the coming years as the continuing needs reveal themselves.”
Bezos and Sanchez happen to be Maui’s most affluent residents, who were quite vocal about the fires that broke out, killing roughly 100 people and leaving thousands more homeless. But that’s all people heard. “Nobody’s heard anything at all,” said Angus McKelvey, the state senator representing West Maui, adding that he’s disappointed in the lack of information and collaboration. “Had they simply consulted with the community and https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpvp08JPqxA/?img_index=1myself and other representatives, we would’ve told them, ‘Take your money and put it over here.’”
Other well-known figures who did succeed in helping people in need were Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson, who started the People’s Fund of Maui in August with initial contributions of $5 million each. The fund has since distributed about $40 million directly to more than 8,100 people, according to Bloomberg. Bezos’s billionaire ex-wife Scott also donated $5 million to the Hawaii Community Foundation.
