Facebook CEO Donates $1 Billion to Nonprofit

I decided to post this since after all it is the season of giving.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/...rgs-1-billion/

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The recipient of Mark Zuckerberg’s latest $1 billion philanthropic contribution is a Silicon Valley institution that primarily feeds other nonprofits working in education, health care and the environment.

But neither the head of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation nor Mr. Zuckerberg would say much about how the new grant will be used.

“We are thrilled that he has chosen us to continue, in partnership, his giving,” foundation CEO Emmett Carson said in an interview. “We respect every donor’s privacy and each donor has their own philosophy and interests.”

In a securities filing Thursday, Facebook said Mr. Zuckerberg would donate 18 million shares to a group the company later identified as the community foundation. At Thursday’s closing price of $55.05, those shares would be valued at $991 million.

Zuckerberg also gave the foundation 18 million Facebook shares, then valued at roughly $500 million, in December 2012. Earlier, he pledged $100 million through the foundation that will eventually go to the public schools in Newark, N.J.

The community foundation, formed in 2007 by the merger of two predecessors, was created to help Silicon Valley companies and their wealthy executives channel charitable contribution to a range of other organizations. Carson said the foundation works with more than 125 corporations and 1,650 smaller charities and issues grants discreetly.

Carson said the group had about $3.5 billion in assets, before Zuckerberg’s planned donation. In 2012, he said about 40% of the foundation’s grants went toward education, 14% toward health causes, and 5% to environmentally focused non-profits.

Zuckerberg is a signer of the Giving Pledge, a campaign started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in which the wealthy agree to donate half of their earnings to philanthropies.

Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and a consultant to the foundation, said the foundation is a place where Zuckerberg can work with a professional staff and learn how to become a professional philanthropist, said

“If you’re looking to give away half of your wealth, you need expertise on how to do that,” Hanson said in an interview. “No individual philanthropist starts out with that knowledge, and they need help in establishing an infrastructure that will enable to them to give in the most effective way possible.”

Hanson said Zuckerberg is the largest individual donor to the foundation. The second largest giver – having donated about $500 million – is Jeff Skoll, the first employee and first president of eBay, Hanson said.

Community foundations are popular targets because they allow donors to shield the ultimate recipients of their largesse, said Melissa Berman, an adjunct professor at Columbia University who teaches courses on philanthropic strategy.

“Using a community foundation is like this gives people like Zuckerberg and his wife more privacy in their giving,” Berman said. Such groups have to say where their money goes, but not where it came from or who directed which grants go where, she said. “This allows people to give essentially in secret, and that’s attractive to people in the spotlight.”

Carson said he is grateful for the gift on any terms. “I think this serves as a testament to the giving nature of Silicon Valley, and I think this will help inspire others to give as well,” he said.

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Awesome.

Respect.

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Originally Posted by rvg

Awesome.

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Originally Posted by Fragony

Respect.

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Wrong, wrong, wrong. Come on guys. The appropriate response is:

*name* likes this.

Considering the company will pay zero federal taxes this year, I think it's the least he can do. At least this tax shelter has an air of sincerity, as opposed to donating it to like the OJ Defense fund

When every agency and administrator is done taking their cut, I wonder how many people in need benefit and how much they do so. That much money would provide 20,000 people well paying jobs.

Really I just want the Zuckerbergs of the world to be hungry. Apparently he is super intelligent. Though a social media outlet is nice and all, how about he goes back to work and creates something beneficial.

If he gives it all away would applaud him. But it's too easy to give money away when you have what he's got.

I heard that 2014 you have to not only give away the rights for your photos to be able to laude him, you also have to give up your fingerprints.

Or did I mix FB up with Apple again?

ANYWAY, Anonymous have done some good stuff lately, without much money at all.

As I understand it, the gift consists of two chunks of $500M in shares in FaceBook. We're talking funny money here.

Still I suppose the charity can afford to employ someone who is sufficiently familiar with that sort of thing to convert it into actual cash flow.

I'm one of those stupid 'tards who have yet to understand the difference between funny money and money and actual worth...

If a person is sane in an insane environment, wouldn't he be seen as insane?

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Originally Posted by Rhyfelwyr

If he gives it all away would applaud him. But it's too easy to give money away when you have what he's got.

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That's the argument behind progressive taxation.

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Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios

As I understand it, the gift consists of two chunks of $500M in shares in FaceBook. We're talking funny money here.

Still I suppose the charity can afford to employ someone who is sufficiently familiar with that sort of thing to convert it into actual cash flow.

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It's not funny money. Where does it say that FaceBook is not easily traded on the stock exchange and liquidated into cash?

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Originally Posted by Ice

It's not funny money. Where does it say that FaceBook is not easily traded on the stock exchange and liquidated into cash?

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It doesn't. But try and liquidate $1B of shares all at once.

[QUOTE=The Lurker Below;2053568299Really I just want the Zuckerbergs of the world to be hungry. [/QUOTE]

Why, because he's rich? If he gets a nasty cancer he's just as dead.

Actually, the ardent market conservative would argue that his money was a well-intentioned waste and that by re-investing in businesses etc. his money would end up doing greater good economically for a greater number of people.

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Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios

It doesn't. But try and liquidate $1B of shares all at once.

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Yeah, I can see where you are coming from. If you think about though, I doubt they would liquidate it all in cash immediately nor would they want to. It would probably be a gradual process, so while the value of the stock could swing substantially over its life, it still has a very real value associated with it.

Al Jazeera had an interesting opinion piece on charity:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...423540217.html

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Charity, as a supplement to justice, should be applauded. But charity as a substitute for justice is neither charity nor justice. It is cruelty.

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Fiscal stability that relies on gifts is not stability. It is a guarantee of insecurity: income based not on work but on whim. Capricious generosity is not a replacement for a living wage, nor is it a basis for a functioning society. Charity is no substitute for justice.

[...]

Charity, for the giver, is the trade of cash for a moral fix. As the Make-a-Wish showed, charity can be beautiful. But it is an investment in the present, not the future. If you value the future - if you value a society where people can imagine their future - work for justice.

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Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh

Actually, the ardent market conservative would argue that his money was a well-intentioned waste and that by re-investing in businesses etc. his money would end up doing greater good economically for a greater number of people.

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The ardent market conservative? Or are you referring to the Randroid?

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Originally Posted by Fragony

Why, because he's rich? If he gets a nasty cancer he's just as dead.

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read the two sentences after the quote you paste and you get the answer. dead? wtf you talking about willis?

the point was: here's a guy who has the mental capacity to solve real problems and so far he's spent it all to create a social media outlet. thanks, now get on to something meaningful.

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Originally Posted by The Lurker Below

the point was: here's a guy who has the mental capacity to solve real problems and so far he's spent it all to create a social media outlet. thanks, now get on to something meaningful.

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You want him to act altruistic in a society based on capitalism? Isn't that just a tad naïve?

The issue is the bigger structural problems we have in society, not that some people prosper as is. No?