Amazon founder and now the second richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, gave the largest single charitable donation last year according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of top-donors.
His donation of $10 billion is aimed at combating climate change as part of his Bezos' Earth Fund. Thus far, the fund has paid out $790 million to 16 groups, all of whom tackle the climate crisis in their own manner.
In February, Bezos outlined his mission, saying:
"It's going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals. I'm committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer. Earth is the one thing we all have in common – let's protect it, together."
The $10 billion donated by Bezos dwarfs the second and third highest donations, made by Phil Knight and his wife Penny Knight who, combined, donated $1.2 billion to various charities, including universities.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was in fifth-place with a donation of $250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which works to preserve the integrity of democratic elections. Facebook has long been criticised for its impact on elections across the world.
While the donation from Bezos is more than welcome, it will hardly dent his pocket as he has seen his wealth grow by $71 billion over the course of the last year, from $113 billion to $184 billion.
It is also noted that this year's total charitable donations are at their lowest level for 9 years, despite the wealth of America's 644 billionaires rising by more than $1 trillion in the year 2020. The rise in Bezos' personal wealth is due in part to many people being stuck at home during the pandemic and becoming more reliant on home delivery, while internet companies have seen their income boom following a rise in the amount of time people spend online.
The gargantuan rise in wealth comes as more and more Americans, and people across the world, are struggling to make ends-meet following the economic fall-out of the ongoing pandemic. In July 2020, as many as 51 million Americans were out of work.
Until last week, Jeff Bezos was the world's richest man. However, he has now been overtaken by Tech Mogul Elon Musk, whose wealth reached $185 billion. The rise in wealth came after a surge in Tesla stock. Tesla, Musk's company, produces electric cars but, in recent years, the businessman has also moved into space-flight with his Space-X company. Space-X is currently working closely with NASA and launched a number of satellites in 2020.
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