Mark Zuckerberg And His $45 Billion Gift Are Under Fire
b"This past Tuesday, on December 1, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, publicly shared a letter they\\u2019d written to Max, their one-week old newborn daughter. In that letter, the couple pledged to give 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charitable causes through the course of their lives. With Facebook\\u2019s market valuation at about $300 billion, the Zuckerberg\\xa0amounts to about $45 billion. Wow!!! That\\u2019s one generous commitment to charity. and my hat is off to them several times over for making such an amazing commitment.
Mark Zuckerberg\\u2019s charitable plans are the latest indication of a growing interest in philanthropy among Silicon Valley\\u2019s young billionaires, who appear eager to spread their wealth while they are still young.
Mark Zuckerberg\\u2019s charitable plans are the latest indication of a growing interest in philanthropy among Silicon Valley\\u2019s young billionaires, who unlike previous generations of business tycoons, appear eager to spread their wealth while they are still young. Mark Zuckerberg is 31 and his wife, Priscilla Chan, is 30. They wrote, \\u201cOur initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people, and building strong communities. We must build technology to make change. Many institutions invest money in these challenges, but most progress comes from productivity gains through innovation. We must participate in policy and advocacy to shape debates. Many institutions are unwilling to do this, but progress must be supported by movements to be sustainable.\\u201d
In a securities filing, Facebook said Zuckerberg planned \\u201cto sell or gift no more than $1 billion of Facebook stock each year for the next three years.\\u201d And he intends to retain his majority voting position in the company\\u2019s stock for the foreseeable future.
Zuckerberg also frequently says he\\u2019s been hugely inspired by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates - one of his childhood heroes for his zeal in building Microsoft into a colossus in the technology industry, and for reshaping personal philanthropy through the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to get wealthy individuals and their families to give away more than half of their wealth to charities during their lifetimes or after. Bill Gates, by the way, has pledged to give away at least 95 percent of his $85 billion net worth.
Giving Through Limited Liability Corporation Draws Mixed Reactions
What\\u2019s also interesting is how they chose to structure their giving. \\xa0In the letter, the Zuckerbergs said they were forming a new organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to manage the money through an unusual limited liability corporate structure. They have not yet detailed how the money will be spent and the pace at which the money will be given out, but there\\u2019s enough time for that. For now, what matters most is the commitment they have made to supporting great causes.
By using a limited liability company instead of a nonprofit corporation or foundation, the Zuckerberg family will be able to go beyond making philanthropic grants. They will invest in companies, lobby for legislation, and seek to influence public policy debates, which nonprofits are restricted from doing under tax laws. And any profits from the investments would be plowed back into the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for future projects.
With an LLC, donors have the ability to invest politically, in the for-profit sector and the nonprofit sector simultaneously. An LLC, for example, can spend money on political ads. A tax-exempt nonprofit can't. And an LLC could make angel investments in clean energy startups in a way that a tax-exempt nonprofit can't. But an LLC can also make donations to tax-exempt nonprofits and thus reap the tax benefits of charitable giving. So today\\u2019s giving is strongly influenced by a desire to actively influence change through philanthropy.
In addition,"