Bezos makes gifts to Obama foundation and NYU medical center

Former President Barack Obama’s foundation announced Monday that it has received a $100 million donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, which it says is the largest individual contribution it has received to date.

Separately on Monday, New York University’s medical center said it has received a $166 million gift from Bezos and his family.

For its part, the Obama foundation said in a statement that the gift from Bezos is intended “to help expand the scope of programming that reaches emerging leaders” in the United States and around the world.

The donation, it said, was also given in honor of John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights icon who died last year. As part of the gift, the foundation said Bezos has asked for the plaza at the Obama Presidential Center, under construction in Chicago’s South Side, to be named after Lewis. Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Obama who serves as the foundation’s CEO, said in a statement that the foundation was “thrilled” by that idea.

Construction on Obama’s legacy project is expected to cost about $830 million and to be completed by 2025. In the meantime, the foundation said it's giving donors the opportunity to “honor and the names of those who have fought for a more just and equitable world” by naming public spaces in the future presidential center.

“Freedom fighters deserve a special place in the pantheon of heroes, and I can’t think of a more fitting person to honor with this gift than John Lewis, a great American leader and a man of extraordinary decency and courage,” Jeff Bezos said in the statement released by the foundation. “I’m thrilled to support President and Mrs. Obama and their Foundation in its mission to train and inspire tomorrow’s leaders."

Since stepping down as CEO of Amazon this year, Bezos has...