All the philanthropic causes near and dear to the hearts of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan
Welcoming his new daughter to the world, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday (Dec. 1) that he and his wife Priscilla Chan plan to donate 99% of their shares in the social network to a new philanthropic foundation they created.
“Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today,” he wrote in a Facebook post addressed to his daughter, Max. “We will do our part to make this happen, not only because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation.”
The shares, currently worth $45 billion, will be doled out to the recently launched Chan Zuckerberg Initiative over the course of the Facebook CEO’s lifetime, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The foundation will work “to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation.”
Zuckerberg, who is taking two months of paternity leave, outlined some initial areas of focus for the organization: curing disease, improving education and “connecting people and building strong communities.” Many of the details remain vague, but he said he plans to share more “in the coming months.”
However, previous donations from Zuckerberg and Chan provide clues into the causes and organizations they’re likely to support.
Education
Zuckerberg and Chan have become big champions of education. Chan was the first of her family to graduate from college, and told the Todayshow last May that “education is an incredibly personal issue for me.” A pediatrician who’s worked as a science teacher, she also encouraged Zuckerberg to teach a weekly after-school program for local underprivileged students.
In 2010, Zuckerberg made his name as a philanthropist with the announcement on Oprah that he was donating $100 million to schools in Newark, New Jersey. But five years later, the funds were found to have fallen short of his vision for urban school reform. As Dale Russakoff reveals in his book The Prize, much of the money was wasted on lavishly paid consultants, with little say given to the local community. In the end, Zuckerberg’s generous donation went to support bureaucracy.
Zuckerberg has learned firsthand how difficult it can be to change education, but he has remained dedicated to the cause. In an op-ed for the San Jose Mercury News last May, he and Chan pledged $120 million to improving the quality of education in underserved Bay Area communities through another organization they created, called Startup:Education. The money has gone toward purchasing computers, providing internet connectivity, training teachers, and more.
The couple has also donated about $1.5 billion to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which offers scholarships to students and gives to charities globally focused on a gamut of issues, including education, immigration, and economic security. And Chan is the cofounder of The Primary School, a free private school opening in August that will serve underprivileged students who live in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
In his letter to Max, Zuckerberg talks about how students will be able to “use personalized learning tools over the internet,” to improve education and overcome limitations of their local schools. In September, Facebook dedicated eight full-time engineers to help All the philanthropic causes near and dear to the hearts of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan - Quartz:
