Here’s What Happened To Jeff Bezos’ $100 Million Pledge Toward Hawaii’s Recovery

The Amazon founder made a very public commitment to help rebuild Maui after the August wildfires. Here’s the progress since then.

Last August, days after wind-propelled wildfires destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed 100 people on the Hawaiian island of Maui, billionaire Jeff Bezos’ fiancé Lauren Sánchez announced that the couple was launching a $100 million fund for Maui wildfire relief.

“Jeff and I are heartbroken by what’s happening on Maui. …The immediate needs are important, and so is the longer term rebuilding that will have to happen–even after much of the attention has subsided,” Sánchez wrote in a post on Instagram. The couple know the island well; Bezos has a home on Maui to the south of where the fires hit.

But in the months that followed the tragic fires, details about the distribution of that $100 million fund were nonexistent. Until now.

Neal Karlinsky, a spokesperson for Bezos, told Forbes that nine Hawaii-based charities have been given a total of $15.5 million from the Bezos Maui Fund, including the Boys and Girls Club of Maui and the Maui Food Bank.

Marlene Rice, development director at the Maui Food Bank, would not disclose the amount that her organization received. But she said via email that “The Maui Food Bank has enjoyed a long-standing partnership with Jeff Bezos in helping the hungry in Maui County. We are extremely grateful to him and Lauren Sanchez … Their most recent generous gift …[is] allowing us to provide essential support to the community during these challenging times.”

The other recipients to date are the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, Maui Humane Society, Lele Aloha and Hawaii Green Growth, both environmental protection and rehabilitation nonprofits; the Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership, which works to restore dryland forests on Maui; the Kahalawai Watershed Partnership, which helps protect Hawaii’s natural waterways; and the East Maui Watershed Partnership, a forest preservation organization.

The Maui Humane Society, Hawaii Green Growth, and Kahalawai Watershed Partnership confirmed that they received donations, but did not disclose the amount they received.

Bezos’ spokesperson Karlinsky declined to reveal how much each charity received. More funding will be distributed, Karlinsky clarified: “As the original announcement made clear, the $100 million will be gifted over the coming years as the continuing needs reveal themselves.”

Bezos, who is currently the third richest person in the world worth about $192 billion, owns a home on an estimated 14 acres of land on Maui worth $78 million. He also lent his helicopter to the Maui fire department, which it used to shuttle workers to affected areas where land and sea access was unfeasible. “The Maui Fire Department would like to express a big mahalo to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez for their extremely generous offer to use their helicopter since August 13th,” the Maui Fire Department said in an Instagram post in September.

Bezos is one of several billionaires and celebrities who donated millions to aid the fire recovery efforts. Oprah Winfrey, also a Maui property owner, donated $10 million to the Peoples Fund of Maui, which she set up with actor Dwayne Johnson.

Bezos’ biggest philanthropic commitment is the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion pledge over a decade with the goal of driving climate solutions. He announced the fund in early 2020 and to date the Earth Fund made a total of $1.85 billion in grants. Bezos also supports tuition-free preschools for low-income families through Bezos Academies; the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund gives to groups that help homeless families find a permanent home and services. His charitable donations to date make him one of the biggest philanthropists in the U.S., per Forbes’ new list of America’s Biggest Givers. But his charitable giving as a percent of his net worth is still in the low single digits.