Bezos Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Bezos Family Foundation invests in early learning, excellence in K-12 education, and youth leadership. The foundation has created free resources for parents and teachers based on research in child development.
IP TAKE: Run by the parents of tech billionaire Jeff Bezos, the Bezos Family Foundation funds rigorous research and K-12 programming with a focus on public schools. The foundation is transparent, but not particularly approachable. Grantees tend to be large, well-established organizations and research institutes, so you’ll need to conduct big, scalable work to attract their funding attention. The foundation is not accepting applications at this time.
This funder, which prioritizes various aspects of education, is not particularly accessible, but it is laser-focused on education. Perhaps future years may see increased funding here.
PROFILE: The Bezos Family Foundation was established in 2000 by Jackie and Miguel (Mike) Bezos, the parents of Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos. The couple created the foundation with help from an initial investment in Amazon stock. According to SEC filings and 990s, between 2001 and 2016, the couple donated nearly it appears that the couple donated nearly 600,000 shares in Amazon to the education non-profit they co-founded. Based in Mercer Island, Washington, the foundation works to “elevate the field of education and improve life outcomes for all children” and help young people “achieve their full potential and make a meaningful contribution to society.” The prioritizes “rigorous, inspired learning environments” through its stated initiatives: early learning and adolescent learning.
Grants Early Childhood and K-12 Education
The Bezos Family Foundation’s two funding initiatives, early learning and adolescent learning, both prioritize research on learning and development, as well as the dissemination of empirical findings to teachers, families, pediatric healthcare professionals and others who work with children. Early learning grants focus on the development of children from birth to age eight, while adolescent learning grants cover development from the age of 9 to 18. A significant portion of funding has supported research on teacher preparation and development, school environment and quality and the systemic improvement of education systems. Early childhood grantees include Access Montessori, the Early Educator Investment Collaborative, the Harvard Center on the Developing Child and the National Black Child Development Institute. Grantees of the adolescent learning grantmaking program include the Adolescence Research Collaborative at the University of California at Berkeley, the Center for the Developing Adolescent at New Venture Fund, Chalkbeat and the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Additionally, in 2023, the foundation gave $14.6 million to expand virtual international student-exchange programs at the Stevens Initiative, and $21 million to Columbia University to create the Center for the Transition to Parenthood.
Grants for Brain and Cell Research
While the foundation does not have a program dedicated to cancer research, it has made some very significant grants in this area, including $710 million to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in October 2022.
Important Grant Details:
The Bezos Family Foundation gave away $88 million in grants in a recent year. A majority of Bezos grants fall in the $100,000 to $500,000 range. Grant ranges vary widely between programs, so grantseekers are advised to read through the foundation’s separate guidelines for each. The Bezos Family Foundation works mainly in the U.S., but has run programs in Nicaragua and Indonesia. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s grants list.
The Bezos Family Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
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