Two of Miami’s wealthiest residents are directing major philanthropic gifts toward American history and endangered wildlife.
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced separate donations totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
FULL STORY: Two Miami billionaires just donated millions. Here’s where the money is going
Here are key takeaways:
- Griffin pledged $26 million to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which opened in July in North Dakota’s Badlands. The library’s west wing will bear Griffin’s name in recognition of the gift, one of the largest in the institution’s history.
- Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, are teaming up with actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio to launch the Phoenix Species Project, a $200 million initiative aimed at saving 100 of the world’s most critically endangered species from extinction, Variety reported.
- The organizations behind the Phoenix Species Project called it the largest single fund in history dedicated exclusively to recovering critically endangered species.
- Florida has dozens of native animals on federal and state endangered species lists, including the Florida panther, West Indian manatee, smalltooth sawfish, hawksbill sea turtle and Everglades snail kite.
- Both billionaires have deep Miami ties: Griffin relocated Citadel’s headquarters to the city in 2022, and Bezos made Miami his primary home after buying properties on Indian Creek Island in 2023 and 2024.
This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists.
Luisa Yanez covers real estate and the impact of wealth migration in South Florida for the Miami Herald. In her work, she will be using both traditional reporting and AI tools.