Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook shares, valued at $45 billion, to charitable causes over their lifetime. They announced this in an open letter to their newborn daughter, committing to donate most of their fortune to issues like health, education, and equality. While Zuckerberg will remain CEO of Facebook, he plans to focus on philanthropic work through their new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The pledge establishes them among philanthropic leaders like Buffett and Gates who have donated most of their wealth.

1. Joyous Dad
Zuckerberg to Give
Away 99% FB Shares
Setting New Giving Standards: CEO and wife
make announcement after birth of daughter,
Max; plan includes no more than $1 billion
contribution annually for next 3 years

2. Contd…
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife pledged to give away virtually all of their $46 billion in
Facebook shares, setting a new philanthropic benchmark by committing their massive
fortune to charitable causes while still in their early 30s.Facebook's chief executive officer
and his wife, Priscilla Chan, unveiled the plan in an open letter to their newborn daughter,
Max (short for Maxima), in a Facebook post on Tuesday , promising to donate 99% of their
stock in the social networking company “during our lives.“
The pledge puts Zuckerberg in the same league with other billionaires who are giving away
the bulk of their wealth, including Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. The key difference is that
Zuckerberg is starting at an earlier age, 31. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was
created in 2000, the year the Microsoft co-founder turned 45.
Zuckerberg doesn't plan to contribute more than $1 billion a year for at least the next three
years, Facebook said in a separate filing, meaning the CEO will maintain voting control of
the Menlo Park, California-based company for the foreseeable future.

3. ‘TOO IMPORTANT'
Zuckerberg outlined his philanthropic goals, which will focus on “advancing
human potential and promoting equality ,“ in the letter to his daughter, who
was born early last week.Zuckerberg will make long-term investments in
areas such as health and education while working to decrease inequality and
building technology to bring about change.
“Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those
coming into this world, not just those already here,“ Zuckerberg and Chan
wrote. “But right now, we don't always collectively direct our resources at
the biggest opportunities and problems your generation will face.“
He added that he will remain Facebook's CEO for “many , many years to
come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to
begin this work.“

4. DIFFERENT AUDIENCE
While Zuckerberg pegged the donation amount on the current value of his
Facebook stock, the value of the gift could also grow. Shares of Facebook have
climbed more than 180% since their market debut in 2012, and 90% of analysts
who cover the company have a buy rating on the stock, meaning they expect it to
go up. At the same time, the figure could be lower if investors determine in the
future that Facebook's stock is worth less.
It's unusual for an executive to undertake such a broad philanthropic effort at so
young an age. Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway who has
committed almost all of his fortune to charity , has singled out Zuckerberg as
someone who can set an example for a new generation of philanthropists.
“He has an audience that's just totally different than what I would have,“ Buffett,
85, said last year at a conference in Las Vegas. The Facebook cofounder previously
signed the Giving Pledge, established by Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, in
which billionaires agree to donate the majority of their fortunes to charity .

5. Contd…
Buffett, whose current net worth is $64.2 billion, according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index, decided to commit most of his Berkshire
stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation when he was 75, after his
the death of his first wife in 2004.
The Gates's charitable foundation, now worth $41.3 billion, has given
away more than $34 billion.
There's also one more thing in common with the philanthropic
endeavours of Buffett, Gates and Zuckerberg: they reduce their tax
bills, as the contributions are tax-deductible.

6. TRACK RECORD
Zuckerberg isn't new to philanthropy; he's given to several education and health-related
causes in the past few years. He and his wife recently started a school in one of Silicon
Valley's disadvantaged neighbourhoods and a trauma centre in San Francisco General
Hospital, where Chan has worked as a pediatrician. The couple this week also started a
coalition with Gates to invest in sustainable energy solutions. The new Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative will be a limited liability company controlled by Mark and Priscilla, the couple
said.
Today, 99% of Zuckerberg's Facebook holdings have a value of $45 billion. If it was all to be
gifted at once that would be enough to create the largest US foundation, according to data
compiled by Foundation Center. The pledge also situates Zuckerberg and Chan in a
centurylong tradition of American philanthropists that stretches back to industrialists
Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller, whose foundations still rank among the biggest in
the country .
“I absolutely think this propels Zuckerberg and his wife into that sphere,“ said Berit Ashla,
vice president at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. “They clearly are not going to be siloed
grantmakers. I anticipate they will be quite interdisciplinary in terms of how they approach
the work.“