Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez Gave Millions To Eva Longoria. Here's What She Did With The Money

It's not every day that people get a multi-million dollar gift, but in March 2024, former "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria was awarded $50 million dollars by business mogul Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, reporter Lauren Sanchez. The Bezos Courage and Civility Award is an annual prize that the Amazon founder gives to people he deems to contribute to society in a significant way. Bezos and Sanchez presented the award, saying it goes to "leaders who aim high and pursue solutions with courage and civility." 

Does Longoria fit this description? Well, the Eva Longoria Foundation has been empowering Latinas through education and entrepreneurship since 2012 with microloans, mentorship, and scholarships. Also, she's the co-founder of Eva's Heroes, where they offer recreation and socialization opportunities to folks with intellectual disabilities and advocate for policy change. Naturally, the recipients of this prize are not expected to use it for a lavish lifestyle, but in continuing their contributions to society. So has she been putting the money to good use?

In January 2025, she decided to use a portion of the money to help with the California wildfires. First, she shared on her Instagram page that she was matching $50,000 to This Is Humanity to support the victims of the fires. Only two days later, she announced that she would add a full $1 million to the cause, this time to the Julián Castro's Latino Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund and the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Recovery Fund. 

Eva Longoria is vocal about her gratefulness to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. "I was really lucky to get the Courage and Civility Award from Lauren and Jeff," Longoria said in an interview with "Today." " ... When something like this happens, we were like, 'How do we pivot? We've got to do something.'" she said, referring to the wildfires.

But a simple money transfer did not seem enough to Longoria. The actress also helped the organization Global Empowering Mission by packing and distributing fire relief and PPE care packages to the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). She also handed out food and water to volunteers, victims, and first and second responders.

In a viral TikTok video by World Central Kitchen, she told the camera, "We are here in Pasadena handing out some lunch to all of these volunteers today who are day laborers–they are gardeners, construction workers, landscapers. (...) They are here lending their literal hands." She added that these second responders are necessary as the city doesn't have the capacity to deal with such devastation. The video is full of comments thanking her for her help and asking for information to volunteer as well. It makes sense, then, that Bezos sees in her what she believes is crucial for the Courage and Civility Award: "We need unifiers and not vilifiers," he said (via Fortune). "We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe."