Excerpt
SUMMARY: Following the birth of their daughter Max, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have announced they will donate 99 percent of their wealth to charity. The money will be managed by a limited liability corporation called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and will focus on health and education. Gwen Ifill discusses the move with Stacy Palmer of The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): It’s a very different kind of baby gift. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday the birth of his daughter with a most unusual letter.
He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, will donate 99 percent of their shares in the social media giant, an estimated $45 billion as of today, to charity. The couple created the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability corporation, on personalized learning, curing diseases, and building strong communities.
They released a short video on Facebook explaining their decision.
MARK ZUCKERBERG, Founder, Facebook: Having this child has made us think about all the things that should be improved in the world for her whole generation. The only way that we reach our full human potential is if we’re able to unlock the gift of every person around the world.
PRISCILLA CHAN, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: We want to make sure we invest in programs that ensure that the future isn’t going to be like today; the future is going to be better than today.
GWEN IFILL: We get more insight into this decision and the larger context from Stacy Palmer, editor of “The Chronicle of Philanthropy.”
Welcome.
STACY PALMER, The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Happy to join you.
GWEN IFILL: Explain to us what the difference is between — you noticed I mentioned that it was a limited liability corporation — between that and a normal nonprofit that we have heard — we have heard of people with money creating foundations before, but this seemed different.
STACY PALMER: This is quite different. This isn’t like the Gates Foundation.
And I think that Mark Zuckerberg is saying that philanthropy, the way it works now isn’t working so well and we need a different kind of model.
So, this limited liability corporation, we don’t know a lot of details about how it will work, but what is different is, it doesn’t have the same kinds of limits on lobbying that foundations have right now. It can do more investing. It doesn’t have to disclose as much information as a foundation does. It doesn’t face the requirement that you give at least 5 percent of grants each year.
So there are some good things in terms of the flexibility it gives to the donor. There are some concerns as well though about the public interest, and I think we’re going to hear a lot more about that in the coming days.
GWEN IFILL: So, how big a player has Silicon Valley now become in philanthropy overall? We keep hearing about this. And we know that almost every name we recognize in that area of the country in the tech world seems to have their own foundation.
STACY PALMER: It’s huge. It’s amazing.
Among the biggest philanthropists now, the tech industry is more dominant than the financial industry, which we never saw in the world of philanthropy. So, clearly, lots and lots of people in tech are giving. And I think will be an important symbol for those who haven’t given or are thinking about giving bigger, that they want to follow in the steps that Mark and Priscilla have set.
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