Jeff Bezos has notched another top spot. The Amazon founder and CEO made the single-largest charitable gift in 2020 [$10B], according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of top donations. Bezos contributed to launch the Bezos Earth Fund, an initiative that seeks to fight climate change. The donation, which was announced in February, is one of the largest individual donations made to fight the effects of climate change.
“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” Bezos wrote in an Instagram post in February. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share. This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.”
(While Bezos made the single-largest donation, his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, has made philanthropic headlines of her own. In December, it was revealed that she had donated $4.2 billion to nearly 400 organizations across the US and Puerto Rico during the past four months.)
The second- and third-largest single donations were made by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, who gave $900 million and $300 million to the Knight Foundation and the University of Oregon, according to the Chronicle. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made the fourth-largest donation on the list, $250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life.
The fifth spot was taken by Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot and the owner of the Atlanta Falcons. Blank gave a $200 million gift to build a new hospital in Atlanta.
Bezos appears again on the list, taking the sixth spots with a $100 million donation to Feeding America… Chain Store Age