Jeff Bezos donates a total of $123 million to 40 groups fighting homelessness after vowing to give away majority of his wealth

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Jeff Bezos donates a total of $123 million to 40 groups fighting homelessness after vowing to give away majority of his wealth
Jeff Bezos next to his partner Lauren Sánchez.Lia Toby/Getty Images
  • Jeff Bezos is giving away $123 million to an array of groups combatting homelessness in the US.
  • The billionaire gave between $600,000 and $5 million to 40 organizations.
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Jeff Bezos has announced he will donate a total of $123 million towards 40 charities fighting homelessness in the US.

The donations form part of his Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, a $2 billion commitment to help Americans who are homeless.

Bezos, who Bloomberg's Billionaire List ranks as the fourth-richest person in the world, on Tuesday posted the news in an Instagram post.

Further information was provided in a press release, which announced that the recipients of the grants span 26 states and Puerto Rico.

Donations of $5 million, the highest amount, were pledged to various charities, including The Salvation Army, PATH, and Housing First, Inc.. Smaller donations of $600,000, were made to organizations including H.O.M.E. Inc.

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Other groups that were given grants included Homeless Alliance, Samish Indian Nation, and LA Family Housing, per the press release.

"Honored to support these groups," Bezos wrote in the Instagram post.

Representatives for Bezos didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, which the billionaire set up in 2018, has given out 170 grants valued at more than $521 million in total, the website said.

Bezos said on November 14 in a CNN interview alongside his partner Lauren Sánchez that he had pledged to give away the majority of his wealth — an estimated $124 billion — to combat the climate crisis and support people who could unify humanity.

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Following Bezos' announcement, his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott wrote in blog post that over the past seven months, she had given nearly $2 billion to 343 organizations supporting people from underserved communities. As a result, Scott has given away at least $14.5 billion of her wealth since 2019 when she signed the Giving Pledge. The pledge marks a person's commitment to donate the majority of their wealth to charity.

Like Bezos, Scott has also contributed to housing charities. In September, she gave two Beverly Hills mansions worth $55 million to the California Community Foundation.

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