Amazon’s $690K donation to Australian fire relief draws criticism

Amazon’s announcement that it would donate about $690,000 to Australian wildfire relief was mocked online by critics who said the company and its billionaire CEO should contribute more.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Sunday the tech giant would donate $1 million Australian dollars, which is about $690,000 (USD), in an Instagram post.

“Our hearts go out to all Australians as they cope with these devastating bushfires,” he said in the announcement.

Bezos’s personal net worth is estimated at more than $100 billion.

Many of the critical comments on Instagram were directed toward Bezos, saying he should have donated more, but others thanked Bezos, arguing any donation will help Australia recover from the devastating fires that have killed more than two dozen people, destroyed thousands of homes and ravaged Australia’s wildlife habitat.

Others tweeted criticism of the size of Bezos’s donation in relation to the amount of his personal wealth.

An official for Amazon was not immediately available for comment.

I don’t know how much has been raised total for Australia, but let’s go over-the-top and assume $10 billion has been raised worldwide (which is way, way more than the probable figure).

If Jeff Bezos personally matched this, he would still have $100 billion.

Think about that.

— Charlotte Clymer️‍ (@cmclymer) January 12, 2020

Jeff Bezos is worth ~$116 billion. This is approximately 0.00059% of his fortune. If you had $50,000, this would be the equivalent of donating less than $30. And winning headlines for it https://t.co/IzQlCMMozh

— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant) January 12, 2020

Are we supposed to be impressed? https://t.co/j2gYaTtN3s

— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) January 12, 2020

Very kind of the world’s richest man to donate slightly more than P!nk but less than Thor https://t.co/GyMkoMjtzj

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) January 12, 2020