It sounds like the setup to an ill-advised roast: what do Eva Longoria and retired Admiral Bill McRaven, the man responsible for overseeing the operation that killed notorious terror leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, have in common? Fortunately, the answer isn’t a punchline, but the reality is that both were recipients in 2024 of $50 million grants from Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez by way of Bezos’s Courage and Civility Award philanthropic program.
Basically, the idea is that Bezos will give $50 million each to philanthropists he deems worthy of funding to do with as they wish, similar to the famous MacArthur Fellows Program, known informally as the “genius grant.” Bezos established the program in 2021 when political commentator Van Jones and humanitarian activist and chef José Andrés were the first recipients of the prizes. Dolly Parton won the Courage and Civility Award in 2022, and then, for whatever reason, there was a pause in 2023. But last year Bezos doubled up again with awards to Longoria and McRaven.
That was back in March of last year when Longoria pledged to use the $50 million to “continue doing what [she’s] been doing] with her Eva Longoria Foundation since 2021. The goal of that organization is “to help Latinas build better futures for themselves and their families through education and entrepreneurship.” Longoria’s foundation has also established Eva’s Heroes for causes within the special needs community. And early this year when devastating wildfires broke out across the Los Angeles area, Longoria pledged $1 million towards relief.
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As for McRaven, he’s pledged to put the money towards various veterans’ causes, including a $1 million donation to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, for researching Gulf War Illness and other mental health programs for vets.
Bezos is one of the few high-profile billionaires not to have signed the Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Giving Pledge, but he has stepped up his philanthropic efforts in recent years, with billions pledged towards his Bezos Earth Fund and hundreds of millions to various other causes outside his Courage and Civility Award.
