Bezos Disrupts Another Frontier With Just One Tweet

Bezos Disrupts Another Frontier With Just One Tweet

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has remained largely invisible in the world of philanthropy. That changed last week in a single tweet, according to Bloomberg.

The tycoon’s request to Twitter, asking how he can best use his wealth to help people “right now“, has set off a frenzy of responses from every corner of the world. They include pleas to support health care, education and loan forgiveness, offbeat appeals to back a leather fetish museum in Chicago, plus snarky demands to reboot favorite TV shows. Even Madonna chimed in, inviting the world’s second-richest man to visit Detroit to engage with charities there.

The unusually public approach bears the stamp of Silicon Valley disruption, and it’s turning heads in a realm that usually enlists consultants and experts to parcel out big-dollar gifts. Seeking ideas on Twitter shows Bezos is acting like a venture capitalist, scouring proposals in the hope of finding a few worthy of investment, says Eileen Heisman, CEO of the National Philanthropic Trust, a charity that manages $4.2 billion on behalf of individual philanthropists.

The crowd-sourcing strategy could signify an expansion of Bezos’s relatively restrained approach to philanthropy. The Bezos Family Foundation, which is best known for its support of children’s education, has been largely funded by his parents from Amazon holdings they acquired as early investors in their son’s enterprise.

Outside of that, Bezos and his family’s known donations have totaled about $100 million, including gifts to Princeton University and Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. That pales in comparison to the billions of dollars donated by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Bezos amassed an $86 billion fortune while building Amazon into the world’s largest online retailer. Just hours after his tweet, he announced the company’s takeover of organic grocer Whole Foods, and he’s been tight-lipped since. He hasn’t yet responded to any suggestions, nor has he indicated publicly how much he intends to donate or when it might start.