Jeff Bezos made the largest charitable donation of 2020

Silver Spring, MarylandJeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the richest man in the world, has made the largest charity donation of 2020, a $ 10 billion donation to help combat climate change, according to a report by a specialist publication.

Bezos, whose personal worth is about $ 188 billion according to Forbes magazine, made his massive contribution to the launch of the Bezos Earth Fund, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported.

The Bezos Earth Fund funds nonprofits involved in environmental advocacy and has donated $ 790 million to 16 organizations to date, according to the Chronicle.

Excluding Bezos’ massive contribution, the total of last year’s 10 largest charitable donations – $ 2.6 billion – was the lowest since 2011, despite many billionaires increasing their wealth thanks to the stock market boom that particularly benefited to the technology sector last year. According to the Americans for Tax Fairness group and the Institute for Policy Studies, Bezos’ net worth rose 63% from $ 113 billion to $ 184 billion between March 18 and December 7.

Phil Knight, who donated the second largest endowment along with his wife Penny according to the Chronicle, increased his wealth by 77% over the same period from March to December. Knight and his wife donated more than $ 900 million to the Knight Foundation and $ 300 million to the University of Oregon.

Fred Kummer, founder of the construction company HBE Corporation, and his wife June gave $ 300 million to create a foundation to support the University of Missouri science and technology programs.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan made the fourth largest donation of the year: $ 250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which helped oversee security in the November election. According to Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies, Zuckerberg’s wealth nearly doubled to $ 105 billion over the March-December period.

In the fifth row is Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, who donated $ 200 million through his foundation to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for the construction of a new hospital.

Bezos and the Zuckerbergs occupy the following sports, each with donations of $ 100 million: Bezos donated them to Feeding America, an organization that helps food banks across the country, and the Zuckerbergs to the electoral security organization itself.

Then there’s Stephen Ross, founder of the real estate company Related Companies; David Roux, co-founder of the financial company Silver Lake Partners, and his wife Barbara; George and Renee Karfunkel, real estate investors; Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot and Charles Schwab, founder of the financial company Schwab Financial Services, and his wife Helen.

Two billionaires who made large donations last year – MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’s ex-wife, and Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter – were not included in the Chronicle list because none of their individual donations were large enough. In February, the Chronicle will publish its list of the top 50 donors, taking total donations into account and not individual contributions.