Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan Pledge 99% Of Their Facebook Shares To Charity

[shazie]

In an open letter to their newborn daughter Max, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook, announced today that he and his wife Priscilla Chan would give 99% of their Facebook shares throughout their lives — holdings currently worth $45 billion — to charity.

The pledge is focused on two main goals: advancing human potential and promoting equality. They define the first goal as "pushing the boundaries on how great a human life can be," including initiatives on medicine, economic opportunity, and access to information. The second plan focuses more on reducing poverty and empowering historically underrepresented groups. "Our society must do this not only for justice or charity, but for the greatness of human progress," they write.

Read the whole letter:

facebook.com/notes/mark-zuc...

[AussieNeil Administrator]

New York Times article "How Mark Zuckerberg's Altruism Helps Himself"

nytimes.com/2015/12/04/busi...

Or the summary for Slashdot if you don't already subscribe to NYT and don't want your email inbox clogged with frequent NYT subscription offers:

news.slashdot.org/story/15/...

So I take it what Mark Zuckerberg has done is redirected tax he would otherwise pay into charitable activities that he and his wife control?

Neil

[Myrddin in reply to AussieNeil]

Spot on - my first thought - tax should be paid where profit generated

[AussieNeil Administrator in reply to Myrddin]

Snopes has a more thorough, up to date summary, concluding:

"As for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's charitable focus, Zuckerberg stated that the organization was in its planning stages, and that little else was known about how future donations of shares would convert to what he described as its "mission." However, little of what circulated was based on more than guesses at how Zuckerberg might leverage a charitable organization to his benefit, and not much indication he intended to do so."

snopes.com/2015/12/03/zucke...

Will he benefit humanity more than would be the case if he paid the avoided tax? Only time will tell...