Mark Zuckerberg Vows to Donate 99% of His Facebook Shares for Charity

Facebook, the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, explained why they have decided to devote nearly all their wealth to charity. SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, announced on Tuesday that he and his wife would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares “during our lives” — holdings currently worth more than $45 billion — to charitable purposes. The pledge was made in an open letter to their newborn daughter, Max, who was born about a week ago. Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, said they were forming a new organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to manage the money, through an unusual limited liability corporate structure. “Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities,” they wrote. Childhood education, climate change and homelessness are among the issues that many would address if they had billions to donate.If Readers Had $45 Billion to Donate, This Is What They Would SupportDEC. 2, 2015 Daniel Chao and Clara Shih with their son, Blake, in San Francisco. Both parents have started and run tech companies.Work-Life Balance: Silicon Valley Is Growing Up, Giving Parents a BreakNOV. 25, 2015 Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, are increasing their support for a nonprofit group called EducationSuperHighway.Bits Blog: Mark Zuckerberg Gives $20 Million to Help Schools Get Faster InternetNOV. 19, 2015 Bits Blog: Mark Zuckerberg Plans 2-Month Paternity Leave From FacebookNOV. 20, 2015 Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Facebook, at a company town hall event in September.Facebook Revenue Surges 41%, as Mobile Advertising and Users Keep GrowingNOV. 4, 2015 Mr. Zuckerberg’s charitable plans are the latest indication of a growing interest in philanthropy among Silicon Valley’s young billionaires, who unlike previous generations of business tycoons, appear eager to spread their wealth while they are still young. Mr. Zuckerberg is 31, and Dr. Chan is 30. Yet they are entering largely uncharted waters with a charity effort of such scale. They have not yet detailed how the money will be spent and the pace at which the money will be given out indicates they plan to take their time. The couple have had mixed results in earlier charitable efforts. In 2010, Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan gave $100 million to improve the public schools in Newark. The money expanded high-performing charter schools but encountered fierce resistance from many parents, community activists and unions. Mr. Zuckerberg has said he learned a lot from the experience. Still, Larry Brilliant, who works on philanthropic issues with many Silicon Valley figures including Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce.com, and Jeff Skoll, the co-founder of eBay, said that both the scale and timing of Mr. Zuckerberg’s commitment, coming so early in his career, were rare. “I hope this will be a model for Mark’s generation,” said Dr. Brilliant, a physician who also previously ran Google’s charitable arm, Google.org.