Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday heis donating nearly $500 million in stock to a Silicon Valley charity with theaim of funding health and education issues.
Zuckerberg donated 18 million Facebook shares, valued at$498.8 million based on their Tuesday closing price. The beneficiary is theSilicon Valley Community Foundation, a nonprofit that works with donors toallocate their gifts.
This is Zuckerberg's largest donation to date. He pledged$100 million in Facebook stock to Newark, New Jersey, public schools in 2010,before his company went public earlier this year. Later in 2010, he joinedGiving Pledge, an effort led by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates andBerkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett to get the country's richest peopleto donate most of their wealth. His wife, Priscilla Chan, joined with him.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Zuckerberg, 28, said he's"proud of the work" done by the foundation that his Newark donationlaunched, called Startup: Education, which has helped open charter schools,high schools and others.
With the latest contribution, he added, "we will lookfor areas in education and health to focus on next." He did not givefurther details on what plans there may be for funds.
"Mark's generous gift will change lives and inspireothers in Silicon Valley and around the globe to give back and make the world abetter place," said Emmett D. Carson, CEO of the foundation.