Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos announced this week they're directing $102.5 million to 32 nonprofits focused on moving families out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It's the kind of check that sounds enormous until you remember Bezos is worth roughly $256 billion, but the couple seems genuinely committed to the long game here.

The Day 1 Families Fund Keeps Growing

The latest round of grants covers 20 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam. Individual awards range from $1.25 million to $5 million, all distributed through the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund. With this donation, the fund has now handed out more than $850 million since Bezos launched it in 2018 as part of a $2 billion commitment to support homeless families and expand tuition-free preschools in underserved communities.

The 2025 recipients were selected with input from homelessness experts including Russell Bennett, David Canavan, Iain DeJong, Cynthia Nagendra, Ann Oliva, and Barbara Poppe, among others. Bezos, currently the fourth richest person globally, has said he plans to give away most of his fortune during his lifetime—a task he's described as "not easy" but one he's tackling through initiatives like Day 1 Families Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, and the Courage and Civility Award.

Meanwhile, his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has been rewriting the philanthropy playbook herself, distributing more than $19 billion over the past five years.

From Bedsheets to Housing Solutions

Sánchez Bezos explained the grants are designed to address both immediate needs—think bedsheets and clothing—while helping organizations build scalable, long-term housing solutions. She recently visited Community of Hope in Washington, D.C., where she met a mother and infant receiving emergency shelter support. "Selfishly, it fills my heart meeting these families," she told Good Morning America. "This is just the beginning."