Mark Zuckerberg Philanthropy Pledge Sets New Giving Standard
Found on Bloomberg on Wednesday, 02 December 2015
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 percent of their stock in the social-networking company "during our lives."
The new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be a limited liability company controlled by Mark and Priscilla, not a charitable trust, meaning they will also make philanthropic investments and back political causes.
There’s also one more thing in common with the philanthropic endeavors of Buffett, Gates and Zuckerberg: they reduce their tax bills, as the contributions are tax-deductible.
A very noble decision, isn't it? Zucky shifts shares from a company he controls to another company he controls with an additional bonus you might want to call tax evasion; and by donating it "during their lives" they make sure that they won't run out of money anytime soon (if you could waste the approximately 450 million they keep). Not to forget, there is also the assumption that Facebook's stock value will stay the same or grow. A dangerous assumption on the Internet where you can kick the bucket any day, like former hyped sites like MySpace et al proved (and younger users are already moving on). Yes, the concept is good, but it's not like he suddenly turned into a saint.