Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, gave away $100 million to a retired Navy admiral and actress Eva Longoria in March as part of the billionaire’s annual prize to individuals who make significant contributions to society.
The Desperate Housewives star and Bill McRaven, a veteran and former chancellor of the University of Texas System, were awarded $50 million each to help those in need. In the months since, the two have allocated the funds toward projects that are near and dear to them.
How much is Jeff Bezos worth?
Bezos—who has a net worth of around $248 billion—launched the Courage and Civility Award in 2021 to support philanthropists.
Van Jones, a lawyer and CNN commentator, and the lauded chef and humanitarian José Andrés were the first recipients of the prize.
“We need unifiers and not vilifiers,” Bezos commented on the reason for launching the award, before revealing the inaugural prize winners.
“People who argue hard and act hard for what they truly believe, but always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. And unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case.”
Since then, country singing icon Dolly Parton took home the 2022 award, after donating $1 million toward Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine research and books to millions of children through her foundation Imagination Library.
How are Eva Longoria and Bill McRaven using the money?
Twelve years on from embodying Wisteria Lane’s housewife Gabrielle Solis, Longoria has gone on to become a director, the CEO of her own production company, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, and a 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 its website.
The charitable body achieves that through a variety of programs for aspirational Latinx, including mentorship and access to funding.
With her portion of the award money, Longoria told Elle that she plans to “continue 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 pledged $1 million of the funds to help aid people affected by ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.
Longoria said that her charitable focus is often on women because they “are the changemakers in families.”
“When you help a woman, she helps her family. And then when you help families, you improve communities. And when you improve communities, you can improve nations,” she added.
Meanwhile, McRaven—who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden—has pledged to use the money to develop education programs for future military leaders and the children of deceased veterans, as well as mental health support for those who serve.
Last fall, McRaven donated $1 million of the funds to UT Southwestern Medical Center to support its research on 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 the dream of a lifetime, 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 give to charity?
The world’s second-richest man (behind only Elon Musk, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List) has been on a wider mission to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime.
Since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO, Bezos has increased his philanthropic efforts and has committed $10 billion to climate change efforts, through an initiative called the Bezos Earth Fund. It remains to be seen how these efforts will evolve, as Bezos appears to be drawing closer to Republican President Donald Trump.
In 2023, he gave out $117 million in grants to support homeless families through his Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, bringing his total donations to nearly $640 million.
However, critics have in the past been skeptical about just how philanthropic the billionaire really is.
“He’s committed a large amount of money. But it still feels very, very half-baked,” Benjamin Soskis, who researches philanthropy for the Urban Institute, previously told Time.
Plus, Bezos still hasn’t signed the Giving Pledge.
Launched by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010, the campaign encourages billionaires from across industries to commit to giving away at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes.
So far, it’s been signed by 242 billionaires including Elon Musk and even Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.
More on Jeff Bezos:
- Jeff Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez is being slammed for her inauguration outfit—igniting Gen Z’s ‘office siren’ debate and what’s appropriate for work
- Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin finally launches massive New Glenn rocket into first orbit, but misses booster landing
- Jeff Bezos’ neighbor lists property for sale—$200 million, no house included
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on March 15, 2024.
