"I want much of my philanthropic activity to be helping people in the here and now - short term - at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact," Mr Bezos writes on Twitter. "If you have ideas, just reply to this tweet with the idea (and if you think this approach is wrong, would love to hear that too.)"
Request for ideas... pic.twitter.com/j6D68mhseL
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 15, 2017
Recommendations range from food programs for children, to protecting forests and fighting homelessness.
Take a look at the 5 most popular recommendations as of writing this:
1. A writer recommends funding charities that work to end homelessness among LGBTQ youth:
These things are mostly fought by small and sometimes local charities, and they never have the funding they need to make a big impact
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) June 15, 2017
If we can keep them going and support them through these incredibly difficult teen years they can thrive and contribute.
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) June 15, 2017
2. A German politician suggests this interesting experiment:
Or you start a basic income grand experiment, where you pay 1.000 random People 1.000 $ a month.
— Christopher Lauer (@Schmidtlepp) June 15, 2017
3. This person suggests using the money to rethink and revamp the education system:
Including @amazon are struggling to find the diverse skilled workforce they need. We need a new college that provides high quality education
— Sylvain Kalache (@SylvainKalache) June 15, 2017
4. Fund women's healthcare, suggests this person:
Fund women's healthcare. Underwrite birth control. Give microgrants for gas money and plane tickets to faraway abortions.
— Helen Rosner (@hels) June 15, 2017
5. This person has an idea: ask Bill Gates for advice:
This is not flippant - I would call (or tweet) @BillGates and ask him since he's spending all of his time on large scale philanthropy.
— Mark Collier (@sparkycollier) June 16, 2017
Mr Bezos has previously invested in longer-term bets like space exploration and kept quieter about other givings.
The e-commerce executive has said he will sell about $1 billion of Amazon stock annually to fund his company Blue Origin, which aims to cut the cost of space travel and kick off entrepreneurship in the cosmos. For philanthropy, Mr Bezos has supported a foundation run by his parents that focuses on education.
Still, the billionaire has yet to make charity a cornerstone of his work, like Microsoft's Bill Gates or Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg have.
Neither has he joined them and 167 other of the world's richest people in pledging to give more than half of their fortunes to charity.
Asked in an interview last year if he one day would rival Mr Gates' magnanimity, Mr Bezos joked, "Well, yeah, if there is anything left after I finish building Blue Origin."
It remains to be seen exactly how Mr Bezos will decide to donate his money.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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