PAAfter recently losing the world’s richest top spot to Bill Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has donated $98.5 million to help the homeless.
The billionaire e-commerce boss launched the Bezos Day One Fund in September 2018, designed to fund organisations that help homeless families, as well as helping to provide high-quality education in low-income communities.
Last year, the fund awarded $97.5m to 24 organisations across the US. As the second round of funding kicked off on Thursday, November 21, it was announced that 32 organisations will receive a whopping $98.5m in grants.
PAThe Homeless Services Network of Central Florida received the largest grant this year, with a huge $5.25m award.
Catholic Social Services Alaska, Covenant House in New York, FamilyAid Boston, Mary’s Place Seattle, MIFA in Memphis, St. Joseph Center in California, St. Stephen’s Human Services in Minneapolis, St. Vincent de Paul in Baltimore, The Road Home in Salt Lake City and The Whole Child in California all also received $5m.
Back in 2018, Bezos committed $2 billion across the Families Fund and Academies Fund – which looks to create a ‘network of new, non-profit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities,’ Bezos said at the time, as per CNBC.
PASo far, no grants have been announced specifically regarding education.
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Microsoft co-founder Gates is currently the richest man in the world, just beating out Bezos (both are listed as having a net worth of $109bn).
Gates briefly took the top spot last month when Amazon reported a 28% drop in profits the three months ending in September, however Bezos soon climbed above again.
PAAlas, following a $10bn cloud-computing deal with the Pentagon, Microsoft’s shares surged (while sending Amazon’s down by 2%).
Gates only owns around 1% of Microsoft shares. However, that equates to around $7.3bn, according to Business Insider – this gave the Microsoft figurehead the boost over Bezos, with Microsoft’s shares increasing by 48% this year.
PAFollowing Bezos’ split from his wife MacKenzie, his wealth took another hit. As part of their divorce settlement, she was given 19.7m shares of Amazon valued at more than $38bn.
Gates’ net worth could have reportedly been much higher over the years, but Bloomberg also noted that he has donated more than $35bn since 1994 through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.