Amazon () founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, donated $100 million to a retired Navy admiral and actress Eva Longoria in March as part of the billionaire’s annual award for people who make significant contributions to society.
The Desperate Housewives star and Bill McRaven, a veteran and former chancellor of the University of Texas System, each received $50 million to help those in need. Over the next few months, the two allocated the funds to projects that were important to them.
How much is Jeff Bezos’ fortune?
— launched the Courage and Civility Award in 2021 to support philanthropists.
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Van Jones, a lawyer and CNN commentator, and renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés were the first recipients of the award.
“We need unifiers, not vilifiers,” commented Bezos about the reason for launching the award, before revealing the winners of the first edition.
“People who argue forcefully and act firmly for what they really believe, but always with civility and never with personal attacks. And unfortunately, we live in a world where that often doesn’t happen.”
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Since then, country music icon Dolly Parton has received the 2022 award after donating $1 million to Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine research and books for millions of children through her Imagination Library foundation.
How are Eva Longoria and Bill McRaven using the money?
Twelve years after playing housewife Gabrielle Solis on “Desperate Housewives,” Longoria became a director, CEO of her own production company, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, and political activist.
In 2021, she founded the Eva Longoria Foundation “to help Latinas build better futures for themselves and their families through education and entrepreneurship,” according to the foundation’s website.
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The charity achieves this through a range of programs for aspiring Latinos, including mentoring and access to funding.
With her share of the prize, Longoria told Elle she plans to “keep doing what I’ve been doing” with the Eva Longoria Foundation and Eva’s Heroes, a charitable organization within the foundation that supports the special needs community. In recent weeks, Longoria has pledged $1 million of the funds to help people affected by the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.
Longoria said her philanthropic focus is often on women because they “are the agents of change in families.”
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“When you help a woman, she helps her family. And so when you help families, you improve communities. And when you improve communities, you can improve nations,” he added.
Meanwhile, McRaven — who oversaw the 2011 operation that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — promised to use the money to develop educational programs for future military leaders and children of deceased veterans, as well as mental health support for those that they serve.
Last fall, McRaven donated $1 million of the funds to UT Southwestern Medical Center to support its research into Gulf War Illness (GWI), along with mental health programs for veterans.
“The opportunity to use this incredible gift to help veterans and their families is a lifelong dream, and I am so grateful to Lauren and Jeff for giving me this opportunity,” he said in a statement to CNN.
How much does Jeff Bezos donate to charity?
The second richest man in the world (behind Elon Musk, according to the Forbes Billionaires list) has been committed to a broader mission of giving away most of his wealth during his lifetime.
Since stepping down as CEO of Amazon, Bezos has increased his philanthropic efforts and committed to committing $10 billion to action against climate change through an initiative called the Bezos Earth Fund. It remains to be seen how these efforts will evolve, as Bezos appears to be cozying up to Republican President Donald Trump.
In 2023, he distributed $117 million in grants to support homeless families through his Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, totaling nearly $640 million in donations.
However, critics have previously been skeptical about how philanthropic the billionaire really is.
“He committed a large amount of money. But it still feels very, very underdeveloped,” Benjamin Soskis, who researches philanthropy for the Urban Institute, previously told Time.
Additionally, Bezos has not yet signed the Giving Pledge.
Launched by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010, the campaign encourages billionaires from various industries to pledge to donate at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes.
So far, 242 billionaires have signed, including Elon Musk, Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, and even one of the founders of Nubank, David Vélez.
