Mark Zuckerberg Donates $500M in Facebook Stock To Charity


By: Talha Bhatti  |   December 19th, 2012   |   News, Social Media
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The Billionaire CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced on December 18 that he was donating approximately $500 million in Facebook shares to a charity located in California’s Silicon Valley. The charitable donation would be used to fund health and education initiatives.

 

The total donation was for 18 million shares of Facebook, which are currently valued at $498.8 million given to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The nonprofit organization deals with allocating the donations from philanthropists.

 

In 2010 The Facebook CEO donated $100 million in stock to Newark, N.J., public schools. This was before his social networking company went public. In 2010 he also took part in the Giving Pledge which was led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO Warren Buffett. The initiative was an effort to get the United States wealthiest people to give away most of their money to charity. His latest donation is his largest.

 

Zuckerberg gave out the information about his donation in a Facebook post on December 18. He also talked about a foundation called Startup: Education which was created from his earlier donation to Newark. The program has worked to open high schools and charter schools it the area. He also mentioned that his latest gift will be used to “look for areas in education and health to focus on next.”

 

Emmett D. Carson, who is CEO of the foundation that Zuckerberg donated to stated that, “Mark’s generous gift will change lives and inspire others in Silicon Valley and around the globe to give back and make the world a better place.”

 

Source: New York Times

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