From Amazon's Jeff Bezos to the Meyers family behind L'Oréal
As the world's health and economy take a hit from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, any effort from individuals and organisations can help to ease the burden and flatten the curve. Here are what the world's highest net-worth billionaires are doing to contribute to the coronavirus relief efforts.
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1. Jeff Bezos
The richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, announced via his Instagram on April 3 that he would be supporting “those on the frontlines at our nation’s food banks and those who are relying on them for food with a US$100mil gift to Feeding America, one of the nation’s largest non-profit focused on food security."
The founder of Amazon also wrote in an open letter to his employees on March 22 that the company would be “hiring for 100,000 new roles and raising wages for [our] hourly workers”, sharing that it is Amazon’s hope to offer jobs to people who had been laid off due to the pandemic.
Additionally, Amazon has donated US$1mil to emergency Covid-19 funds in Washington, D.C., contributed another US$1mil to a newly formed Covid-19 Response Fund by the Seattle Foundation, and created a US$5mil Neighbourhood Small Relief Fund to aid small businesses in Seattle.
He is not without criticism, however—Bezos received a letter from four senators on March 20, expressing concern that Amazon was not doing enough to protect warehouse workers from the virus.