12/17/2023 0 Comments Day one fundIt is so clear from the brain science and other research that the earliest months and years in life matter.” “I’m just so excited that he’s doing this. “The fact that he is making this big of an investment means it will be a real accelerator,” Rasmussen said, demonstrating to other foundations that this is a smart philanthropic investment and potentially spurring public-private partnerships. ![]() That might mean trying new ways to coach teachers to be more effective in the classroom, or strategizing better ways to teach science. “Your baseline first and foremost is a high-quality program for the families and the children, and you don’t vary from that,” Rasmussen said. The fact that he is making this big of an investment means it will be a real accelerator. Jessie Rasmussen, CEO of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, countered that the risk is minimal. “You are taking risks with peoples’ lives here,” Callahan said. One of the key concerns is that while charities can explore new solutions in bold ways that publicly funded government programs often cannot, it also means that kids are the ones testing the ideas. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in particular, has been criticized for missteps in their education funding, making Bezos’ decision to tackle that issue even more interesting. His contribution of $2 billion to the fund represents a little more than 1 percent of his fortune.Īs reported by GeekWire this week in a story previewing the Amazon founder’s decision, “The path Bezos chooses for his philanthropic efforts could alter society in unimagined ways, just as Andrew Carnegie did a century ago and as fellow Seattle billionaire Bill Gates is attempting to do today.” RELATED: ‘The child will be the customer’: How billionaire Jeff Bezos will bring a key Amazon value to philanthropyīut experts in philanthropy caution that success on Wall Street doesn’t always translate to wins in the non-profit sector.ĬEO philanthropists “think that their past experiences and knowledge of business is going to give them some big advantage to solving entrenched problems that have been around for decades … and often they find out the hard way that that is not the case,” said David Callahan, editor of Inside Philanthropy, a charity watchdog site. With Amazon’s market value soaring to $1 trillion, Bezos has become the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of more than $160 billion, positioning him to make a major impact on the world impact with his new philanthropic pursuits. He cited the vision statement of Seattle-based non-profit Mary’s Place as inspiration: “no child sleeps outside.” On the homelessness side, the Day 1 Families Fund “will issue annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families,” he wrote. Others cautioned that while risk-taking innovation has merits, preschool-age students are playing the role of guinea pigs in this experiment.īezos announced the creation of the Day 1 Academies Fund that “will launch and operate a network of high-quality, full-scholarship, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities.” Some experts expressed concern about his eagerness to apply a business mentality to nonprofits, and questioned how that will take shape. Bezos was praised for contributing to organizations tackling homelessness - a cause frequently overlooked by wealthy donors - and for supporting existing efforts, as well as for bringing needed attention to early education. The news received largely positive reactions from the philanthropic sector, but there were some concerns as well. Most important among those will be genuine, intense customer obsession,” he tweeted. “We’ll use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon. Even beyond the name of the fund, Bezos made clear his intent to carry over his business values into the world of philanthropy.
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