Zuckerberg to give away 99% of his family’s Facebook shares to charity

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is a dad, a proud one at that. In a post on the social network, he announced the newest addition to his family, a baby girl named Max. This event has transformed Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan
that the two have formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with the mission of advancing human potential and also promoting equality for all children around the world.

In order to fund this effort, Zuckerberg announced that his family will be giving away 99 percent of their shares in Facebook, which currently totals around $45 billion. This donation won’t happen overnight but will take place over the course of Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan’s lifetime.

“We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues,” Zuckerberg wrote. “But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.”

Although the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was started in 2009, it’s now that the program will likely pick up steam. Zuckerberg said that the first areas of focus include helping with personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.

Zuckerberg won’t be stepping down from being the CEO of the world’s largest social networking company any time soon, but he felt that issues plaguing children around the world are “too important to wait” until his daughter is old enough.


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