Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos has reportedly given a $100 million charitable donation to the Barack Obama Foundation, a gift that will help fund the construction of the former president’s new center in Chicago while giving Bezos access to Obama and other top power players.
Bezos, who is not known to be close to Obama, decided to give the money to the former president thanks to a relationship brokered by Jay Carney, Amazon’s head of global corporate affairs and Obama’s former press secretary, Puck News reported on Monday.
The donation is the largest gift ever made to the Obama Foundation, and it has no restrictions on how it can be used, although Bezos asked for the public plaza at the Obama center in Chicago to be named the John Lewis Plaza after the late congressman and civil rights activist.
“I can’t think of a more fitting person to honor with this gift than John Lewis, a great American leader and a man of extraordinary decency and courage,” Bezos said in an announcement.
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The Obama Foundation said it hopes to “change the paradigm around naming” in the philanthropic world, given that most rich donors make contributions to organizations in return for naming rights to a building or structure in their honor.
“We are hoping that other institutions might adopt this strategy as well,” said Valerie Jarrett, the Obama family’s longtime aide.
The large influx in funding from Bezos will allow greater growth of the Obama Foundation’s presidential center, which broke ground in September in Chicago’s South Side, and will help the organization enlarge its fellowship program for rising leaders across the country.
The Obama Foundation has already raised over $720 million from donors toward its $1.6 billion goal, including millions from philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, venture capitalist John Doerr, and entrepreneur Sean Parker, according to recent tax filings. Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, also announced last year that she had given an undisclosed amount to the foundation.
Bezos, on the other hand, has been on an unprecedented and unexpected philanthropic spending spree after he chose to step down from being CEO of Amazon in July.
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He’s given away almost $600 million this year, including $200 million to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to establish the Bezos Learning Center. He also gifted $100 million each to Van Jones, a CNN political commentator and founder of Dream Corps, a nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice reform, and chef Jose Andres, co-founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that helps provide meals following natural disasters.
