By Aaron Miller-
Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has announced plans to give away most of his $124bn (£110bn) fortune during his lifetime.
Bezos, 58, told the US broadcaster CNN, that he and his girlfriend journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sanchez, were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”.
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He said the money would go to causes that work to tackle climate change and to support people who can unify humanity.
However, Bezos explained that the difficulty is knowing how to go about donating his money in the most worthwhile way.
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” he said.
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“It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.”
It was announced a week ago at the start of the COP27 summit that his Bezos Earth Fund had pledged $1bn more by 2030 to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity – building on $9bn of funds already committed to the climate cause. Also revealed last week was news that country music star Dolly Parton had received a $100m (£85m) prize from Mr Bezos.
The courage and civility award gives people the chance to donate cash to causes of their choice.
Parton, a long-time philanthropist herself, has already established a number of charities and put $1m towards the development of a COVID vaccine during the pandemic.
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