--- title: Mark Zuckerberg Will Pledge 99% of His Facebook Shares to Philanthropic Initiative description: In a letter to their newborn daughter, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan promised to donate 99% of their Facebook shares to charity. authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2015-12-01T21:33:31.000Z' modified: '2015-12-01T21:33:31.000Z' section: Business tags: - Charity - facebook - Mark Zuckerberg - newborn baby - philanthropic - philanthropy - philantrophy - pubdesk - Shares word_count: 163 canonical: https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. 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[Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Chinese President Xi Jinping State Visit At The White House](https://img.money.com/2015/12/490150138.jpg) *Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., right, and his wife Priscilla Chan arrive at a state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015.* New father and tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg [announced](https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-letter-to-our-daughter/10153375081581634) with his wife Priscilla Chan Tuesday that the couple will donate 99% of their shares in Facebook to philanthropic endeavors focused on “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.” “We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission,” the couple announced Tuesday in an open letter addressed to their new born baby daughter. “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.” With the announcement Zuckerberg goes above and beyond other billionaires who have taken the so-called “Giving Pledge,” a billionaire’s pledged spearheaded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to donate more than half of ones wealth to charity. [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-02.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpFindTheCollegeWidget) *Update: This story has been updated to note that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic effort.* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Entrepreneurship", "item": "https://money.com/entrepreneurship/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Mark Zuckerberg Will Pledge 99% of His Facebook Shares to Philanthropic Initiative" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/", "name": "Mark Zuckerberg Will Pledge 99% of His Facebook Shares to Philanthropic Initiative", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-12-01T21:33:31.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2015-12-01T21:33:31.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Mark Zuckerberg Will Pledge 99% of His Facebook Shares to Philanthropic Initiative", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/12/490150138.jpg", "width": 594, "height": 396, "caption": "Chinese President Xi Jinping State Visit At The White House" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-12-01T21:33:31.000Z", "description": "In a letter to their newborn daughter, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan promised to donate 99% of their Facebook shares to charity.", "abstract": "In a letter to their newborn daughter, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan promised to donate 99% of their Facebook shares to charity.", "@id": "https://money.com/mark-zuckerberg-donate-facebook-shares-charity/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2015-12-01T21:33:31.000Z", "wordCount": 163, "keywords": [ "Charity", "facebook", "Mark Zuckerberg", "newborn baby", "philanthropic", "philanthropy", "philantrophy", "pubdesk", "Shares" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Entrepreneurship", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship" ] } ] } ] } ```