Philanthropy guru mum on Amazon's charitable record

One of the puzzling aspects of the pounding Amazon.com has received over its charitable giving record is the fact that Patty Stonesifer -- the former CEO of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's biggest philanthropy -- sits on Amazon's board. Yesterday, Puget Sound Business Journal reporter Clay Holtzman caught up with Stonesifer at a YWCA fundraising lunch event in Seattle and asked her about Amazon's corporate giving -- which recently prompted the online magazine Slate to dub the online retailer "The New Scrooge."

Here's what Stonesifer said:

I don’t have enough to actually answer you. I know that in everything from being a great place to work, to being an environmental steward to taking seriously the giving that they do, Amazon tries to use best practices. Other than that I would send you to Amazon.

Something tells me Stonesifer might have more to say on the matter.

Slate last month became the latest critic to take Amazon to task over its charitable efforts, writing that, "While Amazon.com is famously cheap in its prices, it's also become infamously cheap to the community it lives in."

Amazon recently did some damage control, updating its "Amazon Giving" page to highlight its support for a handful of nonprofit author and publisher groups and charitable efforts by Amazon employees.

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