Is Corporate Charity Just a Gateway to More Power and Influence for Billionaires?  

Amazon contributed $10 million to support the Black Lives Matter movement. 

But Amazon’s donations were highly controversial because the company expressed support of the police. Jacinta Gonzalez, a community activist, said, “the company perpetuates policies and technologies that are clearly targeting and harming black and brown communities.” 

Philanthropy is a major staple of billionaires who want to make an impact in supporting social justice issues and communities in need. But is this contradictory when their own workers are pleading for the freedom to unionize? Is changing structural issues from within a more effective way to make an impact? Through donations, billionaires have immense influence. Activism on major issues like politics, science, climate change, and medical research can make an impact on a national and even global scale. But is corporate philanthropy a smokescreen to hide exploitative and unethical business practices? 

Amazon Silences Worker Activists on Climate Change While Jeff Bezos’ Donations Fight Climate Change

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, a trillion-dollar company, and is one of the richest men on earth. In 2020, the total profit of the company was 386.06 billion. But who benefited the most from the profit it made last year? Amazon was accused of union-busting. Workers were told to attend anti-union meetings. Without labor unions, Amazon management holds significant power. Unions give employees a chance to gain influence within their companies. 

In April 2020, two Amazon employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, were fired after bringing up the mistreatment of workers and questions about safety during COVID-19. Costa and Cunningham demanded Amazon tackle climate change through methods such as the reduction of its fossil fuels. 

Bezos opened the Bezos Earth Fund donating $10 billion to join the fight against climate change. But shouldn’t he start with his own company? Amazon promised to be “net-zero carbon by 2040 and to buy 100,000 electric delivery vans.” But it remains a contributor to excessive pollution. Bezos could focus on solutions for the ways that his company has contributed to climate change. 

Amazon Faces Repercussions

When Jonathan Bailey, an Amazon employee, protested about safety questions he had during the pandemic, his manager threatened him with false defamatory statements of harassment. Bailey said, “Amazon will work to destroy your character and try to keep you from talking about what’s actually going on, and it’s all so that Jeff Bezos can make more dollars.” Amazon was accused of neglecting workers’ rights by The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Workers have a right to protest, yet they are discouraged from unionizing and replaced with temporary workers. Firing employees who raise concerns due to “repeatedly violating internal policies” during a pandemic is unjust and discriminatory. 

This isn’t the first time Amazon has faced retaliation. When Senator Bernie Sanders attacked companies who benefit from the federal government’s aid in offering workers food stamps, Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15. The pandemic only exacerbated these safety concerns; some workers skipped bathroom breaks or suffered injuries to package 300 products an hour. 

Covid-19 was a turning point for workers who are no longer willing to sacrifice their own lives for a company that isn’t worried about their safety. Amazon uses an algorithm rate system, where warning signals pop open when workers aren’t fast enough and their rate suddenly drops. On the fourth warning, workers are automatically fired for not working fast enough or taking too many breaks. Faizal Dualeh, an immigrant from Somalia, who worked at Amazon said, “you have to beat the machine.” When workers turn to managers they say, ”oh, we didn’t fire you, the machine fired you because you are lower than the rate.” 

Controversial Donations by the Gates Foundation 

Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, established the Gates Foundation with his wife Melinda Gates. With 50 billion dollars in funding, the non-profit organization fights “poverty, disease and inequity.” Another main goal of the foundation is the “focus on breaking down the structural barriers to women’s equality and helping individual women overcome existing, day-to-day barriers.” 

The Gates Foundation co-founded Gavi, a vaccine alliance, to develop a way for third-world countries to have protection from the virus and donated $4 billion in administering Covid-19 vaccines through the organization.

Throughout the pandemic, Gates has been an influential voice in public health. Although Gates has resources on science-based medicine, he doesn’t hold medical credibility as a doctor or scientist. Various news media channels interviewed Gates, where he advised on public health concerning the pandemic. This invoked controversy; many didn’t like the idea that a billionaire with no medical license or credibility was giving them medical advice on the best ways to remain protected from Covid-19. 

Microsoft, founded by Gates, made a commitment to “cut carbon emissions by more than half by 2030.” Microsoft faced backlash from activist workers who demanded the company to stop providing technology to oil and gas companies. Philanthropy is a glamorous gesture for billionaires, but don’t they have the power to make more effective structural changes in their own companies? 

So Who Does CEO Activism Benefit Most?

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who was formerly married to Bezos, donated $2.7 billion to 286 foundations to support minority communities. Although Scott’s focus on educational philanthropy and racial justice is inspirational, she faced controversy due to a lack of honesty. Scott has not established her own philanthropic foundation like other billionaires, but instead created a team of advisers to advise on where donations should go. Foundations allow donors to be honest in communicating how much and who they donate to. 

Influence has its Price

Charity has become a way for billionaires to offer their opinions and expertise on global issues, whether political, scientific, or medical. Money remains the most powerful tool of influence. Influence has its price, although donations can impact developing countries and create innovations to help improve global issues; it gives a massive amount of power and influence to billionaires. The substantial influence CEOs have is concerning. The amount of power they hold to influence global and political issues through their donations seems unfair. Why should wealth be a factor in allowing someone to speak on a certain issue they have no credibility in, anyway? Activism could be a door for CEOs to impact communities, but their investments seem to benefit their own endeavors the most.

The question remains: who does CEO activism benefit most? Using money as a powerful tool to help those in desperate need is commendable, yet it is not the most impactful, because these donations also benefit the world’s richest by enhancing their reputations. Activism is a powerful form of influence. Billionaires make contributions to help those most in need and to improve global issues. Many of these donations do not meet their promises to make a global impact with their companies. The Nation put it best: “the most direct beneficiaries are sometimes not the world’s poor but the world’s wealthiest, in which the goal is not to help the needy but to help the rich help the needy.”