OVERVIEW: The Bezos Day One Fund supports local organizations working to end homelessness and runs a signature initiative to create tuition-free Montessori preschools in low-income areas.
IP TAKE: Since its founding, the Bezos Day One Fund has given away over $750 million to local nonprofits working to end homelessness and, through a signature initiative, has launched and operated 20 tuition-free “Montessori-inspired” preschools in low-income areas in Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas and Washington. Although Bezos and MacKenzie Scott established the Fund together prior to their divorce, this Fund has remained steady, giving away about $100 million a year for the past several years. The Fund prefers a proactive grantmaking approach and does not accept unsolicited applications. It prefers to conduct its own internal grantee searches. Grantseekers could reach out via social media to get on the Day One Fund’s radar, but it may be better to network with previous grantees to get on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: Established in 2018, the Bezos Day One Fund was established by Jeff Bezos and his former partner, MacKenzie Scott. It represents the former couple’s $2 billion commitment to support “existing non-profits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, non-profit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.” It makes grants through two programs, the Day One Families Fund and the Day One Academies Fund.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
The Day One Families Fund awards grants to “organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families.”
- The Fund awarded about $110 million in 2024. Since 2018, the fund has given away close to $750 million to organizations operating in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and D.C.
- Recent grantees include San Francisco’s 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic, the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, Family Promise of the Jersey shore and Houston’s SEARCH Homeless Services.
Grants for Early Childhood Development
The Day One Academies Fund is a structured initiative to create and operate “a network of tuition-free, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities.” This program initially served communities in Florida Texas and Washington, but it has recently expanded to include communities in Arizona, Hawaii and Kentucky, as well.
- The initiative aims to use the business principals that led to the success of Amazon Inc., specifically those related to customer satisfaction.
- This is not a grantmaking program per se, as the fund establishes and operates its own schools, all of which bear the Bezos Academy name.
- Locations for preschools are chosen based on various measures of local income levels and lack of quality early childhood education and care.
- Forty-one Bezos Academies have been established so far.
Important Grant Details:
The Bezos Day One Fund makes around $100 million a year in grants to organizations working with homeless populations and its signature Bezos Academy preschools. The foundation’s grants mostly range from $750,000 to $5 million, with an average grant size of about $1 million.
- For information about past grantees, see the fund’s Day One Families Fund and Bezos Academies web pages.
- Neither Bezos nor Scott has indicated that grantmaking from this fund will change in the wake of the couple’s divorce.
- The Bezos Day One Fund does not run a formal application program or provide a direct avenue for getting in touch.
- This funder does not provide a way to get in touch, but social media accounts are linked to the bottom of the website.
- Profiles of the Academies Fund are available here, and the names of advisors to the Families Fund are listed here.
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