Not giving fortune away to charity.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is not giving away his fortune to a charity: Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company, to help ‘missions’ dedicated to various domestic and global causes.
It was reported earlier that Zuckerberg would give 99 per cent of his Facebook shares away in his lifetime, reported the Independent.
Zuckerberg made the promise in an open letter to his newborn daughter, Max, on Facebook. He said he would dedicate 99 per cent of his shares in Facebook to the following “missions”: personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.
However, to do this, Zuckerberg and his wife Chan have set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company – not a charity or charitable trust. Legal filings show that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is owned and controlled by Zuckerberg.
A spokesperson has confirmed to Buzzfeed that as a company, the Initiative can spend its money on whatever it wants – including private, profit-generating investment.
“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will pursue its mission by funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates, in each case with the goal of generating positive impact in areas of great need,” the spokesperson said.
“Any profits from investments in companies will be used to fund additional work to advance the mission.â€
The Independent reported that in November those investments have included:
- $20 million to help connect American classrooms to fast and reliable internet
- $5 million in MasteryConnect, a teaching software
- $5 million to TheDream.US to help undocumented immigrants, in San Francisco attend college.
- $15 million in AltSchool, an education initiative focussing on personalised learning and technology; and
- $10 million in Bridge international academies.
Zuckerberg and Chan wrote in a Facebook post:  “We believe all lives have equal value, and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here.â€
Addressing Max, Zuckerberg wrote: “For your generation to live in a better world, there is so much more our generation can do. Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook’s CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives.â€
Zuckerberg is also part of ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition’, a multi-billion dollar initiative to back clean energy. His estimated wealth is $42.9 billion.
Rather than marking him out as the exception, Zuckerberg’s pledge puts him in the same bracket as Bill Gates, who has also promised to give away 95 per cent of his wealth to his private foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Warren Buffett, who has also promised 99 per cent of his wealth to Bill and Melinda Gates’s Foundation.