Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ fund to support homeless families announced $117 million in new grants to organizations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico on Tuesday, part of a $2 billion commitment Bezos made in 2018 to support homeless families and to run free kindergartens.
That brings the amount awarded to homeless families by the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund to nearly $640 million.
Bezos’ partner, former news anchor Lauren Sánchez, who is also vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, thanked the grantee organizations in a video posted to both her and Bezos’ social media accounts.
The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte received a second grant this year, after first receiving $5 million from the fund in 2018. Deronda Metz, director of social services, said they can use the funding in more flexible ways than the government grants they receive, including renovating a 100-room hotel, hiring additional staff and expanding the boys’ facility on campus & Girls club.
Rents in her city have risen sharply after the pandemic, as in many cities, meaning more families are losing their homes and the cost of getting apartments has risen, she said.
“In a rental market like this, if you have flexible dollars, you could pay your high rent, you could pay a higher security deposit,” Metz said.
The fund works with an advisory board of experts from organizations such as the Urban Institute and the National Coalition for the Homeless to identify potential grantee organizations that can then submit funding proposals for consideration.
Amanda Andere, CEO of the national network Funders Together to End Homelessness, previously served on the fund’s advisory board. Her organization does not directly fund nonprofits, but advises philanthropic donors in this area, with an emphasis on racial justice.
“Ultimately, we believe that philanthropy cannot end homelessness alone, and cannot be a gap filler,” Andere said. “And so the most effective strategy is to fund advocacy, policy, activism and organizing to effect change in government.”
Funders Together estimates that about $2.2 billion in philanthropic funding went to housing and homelessness in 2021, based on data from the organization Candid, which collects information on charitable donations. That’s a tiny amount compared to annual state housing budgets, including $59.7 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2021.
“We know that the Bezos Family Fund is less likely to support things like advocacy, organizing or activism, but providing general operational support to an organization gives them the flexibility to spend money on other things that can help them be a part of a more community spirit. organizing or involving people with lived experience,” to effect change in the overall housing system, she said. General operating support means that subsidy financing can be used with little or no restrictions on financing.
The Bezos Day 1 Families Fund did not provide a timeline for when the pledged $2 billion would be distributed or what portion would go to homeless families.
Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021 to devote more time to his other projects, including the rocket company Blue Origin, and his philanthropy. He and Sánchez told CNN last year that they were determined to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime. The couple has not signed the Giving Pledge, which asks billionaires to make a similar pledge.
According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Bezos gave away $122.2 million last year and pledged about $12.8 billion in charitable donations. His mother, Jacklyn Bezos, and her husband Miguel donated $710 million to the Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in 2022.
Bezos and Sánchez have pledged $100 million in the wake of the Maui wildfires, and Bezos has also given $100 million to Dolly Parton, chef José Andrés and CNN commentator Van Jones, asking him to give the money away to nuns -profit organizations.
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