Mark Zuckerberg donates shares worth over Rs 630 crore to charity
Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan
In keeping with the philanthropic promise made last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold the social networking giant’s shares worth approximately $95 million (roughly Rs. 638 crores) recently.
According to a US regulatory filing, The Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and CZI Holdings LLC sold Facebook shares worth $95 million before taxes, Forbes reported on Saturday. “The sales likely netted more than $85 million after capital gains taxes, the report added.
Last December, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to donate 99 per cent of their Facebook shares, worth about $45 billion (roughly Rs. 2,99,318 crores), to advance human potential and promote equality for children. The couple plans to give away around $1 billion (roughly 6,720 crores) worth of stock each year through 2018.
The couple started the ‘Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’ as they welcomed their first girl Maxima Chan Zuckerberg. The foundation was setup to focus on personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities initially.
“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,” they posted in a 2,200-word letter to their newborn daughter on Facebook.
“We will give 99 per cent of our Facebook shares during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others,” the couple wrote.
The world’s biggest social network boasts of having over 1.7 billion monthly active users.
