- Person
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Lived
- b. 1984
- Field
- Technology
- From
- American
The story
The Giving Pledge was formally announced in June 2010 by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, who began inviting the world's wealthiest people to join them. Signers promise to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy, either during their lifetimes or in their wills. It is a public statement of intention rather than a legal contract, and its power lies in encouraging others to follow. By August 2010 the first 40 pledgers had joined, with a combined wealth of about $125 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg added his name in 2010, at the age of 26 and only six years after launching Facebook from his college dormitory. His commitment came unusually early in his career. He joined Gates and Buffett in inviting others among the wealthy to give 50 percent or more of their wealth to charity.
That year he had also made his first major gift. In September 2010 it was reported that he had pledged $100 million to the public schools of Newark, New Jersey, through his new Startup:Education foundation.
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan soon backed the pledge with action. In December 2012 they said that over the course of their lives they would give the majority of their wealth to advancing human potential and promoting equality, in the spirit of the Giving Pledge, and that month they gave 18 million Facebook shares, worth about $500 million, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. A further 18 million shares, worth about $990 million, followed in December 2013, the largest charitable gift on public record that year.
In December 2015 they went far beyond the pledge's minimum, promising 99 percent of their Facebook shares, then worth about $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Its projects have included $600 million to found the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub for medical research, a $75 million gift to San Francisco's public hospital and $25 million to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
The Giving Pledge has since grown to more than 250 signatories from about 30 countries. Zuckerberg's early signature helped show a new generation of technology founders that serious philanthropy could begin in youth, not only at the end of a career.
Why it matters
By pledging early in life, Zuckerberg helped encourage a new generation of technology founders to commit their wealth to philanthropy.
About Mark Zuckerberg
Co-founder of Facebook/Meta; defined the social era of the internet.
More about Mark Zuckerberg
- Zuckerberg and Chan founded Biohub with $600 millionIn 2016 the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave $600 million to create Biohub, a research centre in San Francisco linking scientists at UCSF, UC Berkeley and Stanford.
- Zuckerberg co-founded the Breakthrough Starshot projectIn 2016 Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Breakthrough Starshot with Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, a research project to develop tiny light-sail spacecraft that could reach another star.
- Zuckerberg and Chan gave $75 million to a public hospitalIn February 2015 Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan gave $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital, the biggest individual donation to a US public hospital.
- Zuckerberg and Chan gave $25 million to fight EbolaIn October 2014 Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan donated $25 million to combat the West African Ebola epidemic.
- Zuckerberg pledged 99% of his Facebook shares to charityOn 1 December 2015 Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pledged to give 99% of their Facebook shares, then worth about $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
- Zuckerberg made the largest public charitable gift of 2013In December 2013 Mark Zuckerberg donated 18 million Facebook shares, worth about $990 million, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest charitable gift on public record that year.
Mark Zuckerberg in the news
- October 7, 2026Zuckerberg and Chan's Biohub assembles $1.8 billion push to build an AI 'virtual cell'
- July 8, 2026Zuckerberg-Chan Biohub uses CRISPR and AI to find new psoriasis drug targets
- April 29, 2026Zuckerberg- and Chan-backed Biohub commits $500 million to open data for AI cell models
Sources
- Mark Zuckerberg Wikipedia
- The Giving Pledge Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.