Cash goes to those most affected by pandemic

MacKenzie Scott has given away more than £3bn in four months to good causes, she has said.

The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in a blog post she donated more than $4bn to food banks and emergency relief funds to help Americans who were struggling because of the pandemic.

Her $60bn fortune has been amassed due to a huge divorce settlement after she split from Bezos.

Scott donated $1.7bn to 116 charities in July saying she wanted to call attention to "organisations and leaders driving change." This takes her total donations for the year to almost $6bn.

Donations were focused on those "operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital."

Last year she signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away the majority of her fortune. The Giving Pledge is a commitment by the world's wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back.

"I have a disproportionate amount of money to share," she wrote in her pledge.

Jeff Bezos has also been active with philanthropy, committing $10bn to issues related to climate change.

In November, he announced the first of those grants, handing out nearly $800m to 16 groups.

Bezos has seen his net worth increase $70bn this year to reach a fortune of $185bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

During the pandemic there has been a massive rise in online shopping benefitting online retailers such as Amazon. Swiss bank UBS said billionaires had done "extremely well" in the Covid crisis.