The wealthiest man in the world announced Thursday that he is launching a $2 billion fund to help homeless families and build preschools.
“MacKenzie and I share a belief in the potential for hard work from anyone to serve others,” Jeff Bezos said on Twitter, referring to his wife. “If our own great grandchildren don’t have lives better than ours, something has gone very wrong.”
Bezos is the CEO of Amazon, founder of rocket company Blue Origin, and owner of the Washington Post. With a net worth of at least $150 billion, he is the wealthiest man in history.
His “Day One Fund” will focus on two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help homeless families, and creating new, non-profit preschools in low-income communities.
[Also read: Amazon’s market value tops $1 trillion despite political crossfire]
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) September 13, 2018
Bezos has faced pressure to be more charitable with his wealth — other billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have massive philanthropic initiatives.
In 2016, Bezos said in an interview that finishing building Blue Origin was more important to him than philanthropy. But in 2017, Bezos asked on Twitter for ideas about where he should start donating his money.
“This tweet is a request for ideas,” he wrote in a tweet. “I’m thinking of a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my time — working on the long term.”
This month, Bezos and his wife donated $10 million to a organization that works to elect military veterans to office.
