The Bezos Family Foundation will pump as much as $150 million into an anti-poverty charity to help fund early childhood education in New York — as Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushes his ambitious universal free child-care agenda.
The charity, Robin Hood, unveiled a $1 billion endowment campaign on Monday aimed at cementing its longstanding anti-poverty mission, anchored by a $100 million donation from the Bezos family to create the Jackie Bezos Endowment for Early Childhood, according to a press release.
The family also pledged an additional $25 million, subject to a match, for a total contribution of $150 million for the endowment named after billionaire Jeff Bezos’s late mother.
The gift positions Robin Hood, which has already invested $3 billion to fight poverty in the Big Apple, as a major player in the city’s escalating fight over affordable childcare.
“My mother saw the innate potential in every child and never stopped working to ensure that potential was met,” Mark Bezos said of his mother, Jackie, who served for a decade on the organization’s board.
“This gift honors her legacy and makes permanent the work she helped build at Robin Hood,” Bezos added.
Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery Jr. added in an interview with the New York Times that the money will be spent in the near term to drive an “immediate impact” in stabilizing the city’s strained child-care system.
“In a world where it’s so hard to break through the noise, where even people who should be able to agree on facts can’t agree on facts, I think this is a place where we have a set of facts all aligning and pointing in one direction,” Buery told the outlet.
The endowment is already 70% funded and will not focus solely on early childhood education, he said.
The announcement comes as Mamdani has made universal, free childcare one of the core promises of his socialist administration.
Hizzoner is hoping to raise $20 million for a “childcare action fund” within the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City — and has raised $3.5 million for this fund thus far, the Times reported.
Robin Hood typically prefers to distribute its own money, but some of its funds still do flow into city programs, the outlet reported.
Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for Mamdani, told the Times in a statement that the city was “proud” to see Robin Hood’s commitment to expanding childcare.
“To deliver free, universal childcare across all five boroughs, it is going to take a citywide effort — government, providers, working families, labor, philanthropy, and New Yorkers in all five boroughs,” she said.
City Hall did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Mamdani skipped Robin Hood’s star-studded annual gala at the Javits Center on Monday night, where the donation was announced, according to the report.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos sat near the stage while former Mayor Mike Bloomberg mingled with celebrity guests. Gov. Kathy Hochul also attended the black-tie event, which raised $73 million for Robin Hood’s poverty-fighting programs, the publication reported.
Chair of the Robin Hood Board of Directors, Kenneth Tropin, called the new endowment campaign critical to ensuring the organization can continue responding to crises “for generations to come.”
“Robin Hood has become essential to the fabric of New York City and is an organization so critical to those in need in New York City. We need to ensure that for decades to come, our mission of supporting New Yorkers’ most vulnerable is sustained,” Tropin said in a statement.
“Since the beginning, we have stood with New Yorkers in their darkest hours — after 9/11, Superstorm Sandy, and during COVID-19 — and in the quiet, daily work of building pathways out of poverty. This campaign ensures Robin Hood will be here to support New Yorkers for generations to come,” Tropin said.
