Mark Zuckerberg to Donate Most of His Wealth to Charity

Mark Zuckerberg to Donate Most of His Wealth to Charity - Wall Street Journal

At only 26 years of age, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the world’s youngest billionaires, but he’s not keeping it all for himself. By signing onto Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s initiative called the “Giving Pledge,” Mark agreed to give most of his wealth to charity.

This is not Zuckerberg’s first foray into philanthropy; he had donated an undisclosed amount to the open social network project Diaspora as well as $100 million to Newark Public Schools. He spoke about the Newark donation on Oprah, explaining his dedication to help fix the public school system.

The Giving Pledge, however, is a completely different ball game. Along with 57 other multi-millionaire and billionaire families and individuals, including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Carl Icahn, by signing the pledge Mark Zuckerberg promised to give more than half of his wealth to charity, either during his lifetime or after his death.

“People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done? With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts,” said Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.

According to Forbes’ estimate, Mark Zuckerberg is worth $6.9 billion, which puts him on the 35th position on the list of wealthy Americans. Although many consider him to be the world’s youngest billionaire, he recently lost that title to Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who’s only 8 days younger than him and whose worth is currently estimated at $1.4 billion.