Jeff Bezos and Fiancée Lauren Sánchez Are Donating $60M to Restore Land Across US
Billionaire Jeff Bezos is making progress on the decade-long climate pledge he first made in 2020. Alongside his fiancée Lauren Sánchez, the Amazon (AMZN) founder earlier this week unveiled a $60 million grant to help restore 1.6 million acres of land across the U.S. The donation comes from the Bezos Earth Fund, a climate commitment Bezos initially established in 2020 that is expected to dole out a total of $10 billion for environmental solutions by the end of this decade.
The grant will aid the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) as it protects and improves the management of land across grasslands in the nation’s Northern Great Plains and longleaf pine forests in the Southeast U.S. “America’s landscapes are treasures that reflect the very heart of our country,” said Bezos in a statement. “By restoring these grasslands and forests, we’re safeguarding their natural beauty for future generations.”
The Bezos Earth Fund has previously provided NFWF, the country’s largest conservation foundation, with $90 million in funding to restore some 2.7 million acres. Its new grant will build upon that to help 80 to 100 different local projects across more than a dozen U.S. states focused on supporting at-risk species and ecosystems throughout the next two years.
According to the billionaire’s philanthropic organization, these projects will range from boosting populations of black-footed ferrets and gopher tortoises, planting native trees and grasses, and prescribing burning in longleaf forests. “This new phase of work with NFWF will help bring life back to vital U.S. landscapes, said Sánchez, who serves as vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, in a statement.
A look at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wide-ranging donations
This isn’t the first time Bezos and Sánchez have teamed up on philanthropic efforts. Following last year’s Hawaii wildfires, they created a Maui fund to donate $100 million towards relief efforts. Earlier this year, the duo gave the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, an annual prize established by Bezos in 2021 that awards recipients $100 million to distribute to nonprofits, to actress Eva Longoria and retired Navy admiral Bill McRaven.
With an estimated net worth of $208 billion, Bezos is currently the world’s third wealthiest person. In 2020, he promised to donate the majority of this cash during his lifetime, noting that he and Sánchez were in the midst of “building the capacity to be able to give away this money.” Much of his fortune has since been distributed via the Bezos Earth Fund. As of 2024, the Amazon founder’s climate commitment has granted $2 billion to more than 230 different initiatives.
Around one-tenth of the Bezos Earth Fund’s $10 billion commitment is earmarked for land restoration efforts like its NFWF grant, while the rest of the fund’s grants will benefit areas like food system transformations, decarbonization efforts and climate-focused technological advancements. Some of the organization’s recent donations included a $100 million investment in locating green A.I. solutions, a $60 million gift towards alternative protein research and a $400 million commitment for urban greening efforts in underserved spaces via the fund’s Greening America’s Cities Initiatives.
The Greening America’s Cities Initiatives is “transforming spaces like parking lots into beautiful parks,” said Sánchez during a fireside chat at NFWF’s 40th Anniversary Gala on Oct. 19, as reported by People. According to the philanthropist, a key aspect of the project is helping youth “recognize how beautiful nature can be.”
Bezos, meanwhile, noted that humanity has improved substantially throughout the past five centuries except for when it comes to taking care of the natural world. “The question is: Can we take that one exception to life not being better and turn it around? And we can,” he said.