In terms of Bezos, we suspect that he finally caved to public pressure and criticism of his absurd amount of wealth. After all, he’s touted to be currently worth around $115bn.

Having said that, it is possible that two things can be true at once: while many would consider the mere existence of billionaires to be morally and ethically wrong, it could be argued that the world’s wealthiest hold the key to unlocking and unleashing the power to evoke change in the world.

Benjamin Soskis, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy stated that Bezos has “resisted developing a public philanthropic identity,” a position that Soskis believes had “become increasingly untenable”.

The world’s fourth-richest person, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Bezos’ name has been notably absent from the Giving Pledge — a list signed by 230 of the world’s extraordinarily rich people since 2010, who pledge to donate the majority of their fortunes to charity in their lifetimes.

It’s also important to note that even if Bezos only retained 1% of his current fortune, he would still be left as a millionaire. With world poverty still prevalent in our time, it feels insane that we’re still enabling people to accrue such vast fortunes in the first place.

In essence, Jeff Bezos can afford to give away the majority of his wealth if it keeps him in good standing with the public, although this is not necessarily a bad thing if the net result is beneficial to society. It’s also hard to judge how the money given away will be used — from investing in social infrastructure to helping end world hunger, we just hope the decision makers are among the wisest!

Going back to Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia-fame, it’s safe to say we’ve long been big fans of how strategically he views wealth and doing good.

During the 80s, Patagonia began donating 1% of its sales to environmental groups — long before it was politically popular with consumers — and formalised the program in 2001 as the “1% for the Planet Scheme”. Since then, the initiative has resulted in $140m in donations for preservation and restoration of the natural environment, according to the company. Patagonia was also one of the earliest companies to qualify for a B-Corp certification and recently changed its mission statement to focus on being “in business to save our home planet.”

For clarity: Chouinard’s family donated 2% of all stock and all decision-making authority to The Patagonia Purpose Trust, which will oversee the company’s mission and values. The other 98% of the company’s stock will go to a non-profit called the Holdfast Collective, which “will use every dollar received to fight the environmental crisis, protect nature and biodiversity, and support thriving communities, as quickly as possible,” according to a company statement.

The structure, the statement said, was designed to avoid selling the company or taking it public, which could have meant a change in its values. This was an incredibly smart play by the Chouinard’s, and all seems part of a bigger plan that can be traced back 40 years.