Social networking site Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg used the occasion of the birth of his first child Maxima to announce that over the course of their lives, he and his wife Priscilla Chan will give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares, currently valued at about $45 billion, in what would be one of the world’s largest philanthropic gifts, The Wall Street Journal says.
In a letter to their daughter, Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife Chan, a pediatrician, said they had created a new foundation that would initially focus on “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people, and building strong communities.” The couple hopes that the initiative will “join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation.”
For this purpose, they established the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, which will fund nonprofit organizations and make private investments, all the profits from which would also be used for charity.
Zuckerberg plans to donate to charity not more than an annual $1 billion in the next three years, Bloomberg reports. He will thus continue to hold the controlling and voting shares in Facebook, be at the head of it, and develop this social website in the near future.
Zuckerberg is now on a two-month paternity leave.
