Zuckerberg and wife vow to give away Facebook fortune

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg
announced Tuesday he is a dad and pledged to
give away his fortune to make the world a “better
place” for baby daughter Maxima and others.
In a letter to Maxima posted on his Facebook
page, Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan said
they were going to give away 99 percent of their
company shares — estimated value $45 billion —
during their lives in an effort to make a happy
and healthy world.
“Max, we love you and feel a great responsibility
to leave the world a better place for you and all
children. We wish you a life filled with the same
love, hope and joy you give us. We can’t wait to
see what you bring to this world,” the letter said.
Zuckerberg will “gift or otherwise direct” nearly
all his shares of Facebook stock, or the after-tax
proceeds of sales of shares, to further a mission
of “advancing human potential and promoting
equality” by means of activities for the public
good, the California-based social network said in
a filing with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Zuckerberg “intends to retain his majority voting
position in our stock for the foreseeable future,”
Facebook said in the SEC filing.
“As you begin the next generation of the Chan
Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the
world to advance human potential and promote
equality for all children in the next generation,”
the Facebook chief and his wife said.
“Our initial areas of focus will be personalized
learning, curing disease, connecting people and
building strong communities.”
Zuckerberg early on added his name to those
who have taken a Giving Pledge to dedicate the
majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
“My hat’s off to Mark Zuckerberg for making a
decision he’ll never regret and making a
difference he’ll forever be remembered for,”
pledge-signer and former New York City mayor
Michael Bloomberg said in an online post.
“The traditional approach to giving –- leaving it
to old age or death –- is falling by the wayside, as
it should. Mark’s decision shows that when it
comes to philanthropy, 30 is the new 70.”
Zuckerberg is 31 years old, while Bloomberg is
73.
Names on the pledge include Microsoft co-
founder Bill Gates, Facebook chief operating
officer Sheryl Sandberg, Oracle billionaire Larry
Ellison and IAC/InterActiveCorp powerhouse
Barry Diller.
“We believe all lives have equal value, and that
includes the many more people who will live in
future generations than live today,” Zuckerberg
and Chan said in their letter to Max.
“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 in November said that he and his
wife are donating $20 million to help get high-
speed Internet service to US classrooms.
The money is being given to nonprofit group
Education Super Highway to help with its
mission, the Facebook chief executive said in a
post on his page at the social network.
A month earlier, Zuckerberg and his doctor wife
revealed plans to start a private school in a
hardscrabble Silicon Valley town, mixing
education with health care.
Zuckerberg voiced pride in his wife, Priscilla, for
the plan to create “The Primary School” in the
working-class city of East Palo Alto.
Last year, Zuckerberg and Chan began pumping
$120 million into San Francisco Bay Area schools.
More than five years ago, Zuckerberg channeled
$100 million to improve schools in the New Jersey
city of Newark in an early foray into improving
public education that got failing grades.
Zuckerberg plans to take two months’ paternity
leave to be a dad.
“Studies show that when working parents take
time to be with their newborns, outcomes are
better for the children and families,” Zuckerberg
said in an earlier post on his Facebook page.
Beginning with the new year, dads working full-
time for Facebook anywhere in the world will
have the option of taking four months’ paid
leave.
All new dads working for Facebook outside the
US currently get a minimum of four weeks’
paternity leave, with more time offered in
locations where required by local law, according
to Facebook.