To be sure, other technology entrepreneurs have put twists on philanthropy.
Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, who pledged to give away 99 percent of their $63 billion stake in the social network, are channeling their efforts with a limited liability company. That gives the couple more flexibility than a traditional foundation; for example, they don’t have to give to charity every year and can make investments and political donations. Sean Parker, who has a $3 billion net worth, is using a cancer research institute he funded to the tune of $250 million to overturn traditional research practices.
“The world is full of pretty stodgy foundations that generally do pretty safe things,” Parker said in a December interview with Bloomberg. “I’d rather see what happens when you do something totally different that’s never been tried.”
Even if Bezos is able to outsource idea generation he will likely need at least some apparatus to make a meaningful impact. Demands on his time already include Amazon, his ownership of the Washington Post, and his funding of space exploration company Blue Origin LLC.
One earlier attempt at crowd-sourcing -- via the more traditional venue of a newspaper -- made a smaller splash and still required a lot of work. In 2011, billionaire Bill Conway, a co-founder of the Carlyle Group, told a columnist he wanted advice on how to donate at least $1 billion. The response, about 700 emails after a week, required four people to vet. Bezos already has 60 times more to consider.
“I don’t imagine he wants to be physically writing checks all day,” said Emmett Carson, CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which manages $8.2 billion in assets and helps philanthropists distribute grants.
Even if Bezos ramps up quickly he’ll have a ways to go to catch up with tech titans before him.
Bill and Melinda Gates have given more than $30 billion of stock and cash since 1994, valued at the time of gift, according to a review of two decades worth of Gates Foundation tax returns, annual reports and regulatory filings. Gates has probably directed more than 700 million Microsoft Corp. shares into his foundation, adjusting for stock splits. Those would be worth about $50 billion today had he held onto them, enough to catapult his fortune to $140 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Buffett’s charity efforts kicked off in earnest in 2006 and since then he has given about 270 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, worth around $24 billion at the time of the donations, to charities led by the Gates Foundation. Those shares are now worth more than $45 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Gates Foundation has given away $36.7 billion and has an endowment of $40.6 billion, Andrew Estrada, a foundation spokesman, said in an email. If Bezos intends to match those kind of numbers it is unlikely he’ll be able to rely solely on crowd-sourcing.
“It’s an overwhelming task that is innovative now but won’t sustain itself long-term because of the resources and time involved in filtering ideas,” said National Philanthropic Trust’s Heisman. “In five years his approach will likely have evolved into something very different, just like Amazon has over and over again.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.