Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta and one of the world’s richest people, and his wife, Dr Priscilla Chan, have announced that they will spend 99 percent of their vast wealth on public good. Rather than leave their entire fortune to their three daughters, they want to give most of their Meta shares to charity during their lifetimes.
Zuckerberg and Chan made the announcement in December 2015, after the birth of their first child, Maxima. They set out the decision in an open letter to their daughter titled “A Letter to Max”.
They then set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), which works to advance human potential and promote equality. One of its main aims is to improve people’s lives through investment in education, scientific research, healthcare and social development.
In the open letter, Zuckerberg and Chan wrote that they have a moral responsibility to all children of the next generation. They want not only to secure their own children’s future but to build a better world for all the children to come.
In 2015 the 99 percent of shares had a market value of about $45 billion. As Meta’s share price and Zuckerberg’s wealth have grown, that figure has risen considerably.
In a 2021 interview with the British newspaper The Sunday Times, Priscilla Chan said their discussions about spending their wealth on public good had begun much earlier, in 2005, when Facebook was starting to show signs of commercial success. She said her interest in and commitment to public service went back a long way.
With this decision the couple also joined The Giving Pledge, a campaign under which the world’s richest people commit a large share of their wealth to the public good. It was started by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett, and aims to encourage billionaires to give most of their wealth to charitable and philanthropic causes.
Despite the pledge to give away 99 percent, their three daughters will not be left without means. The remaining 1 percent is worth an estimated $2 billion. Alongside a large family fortune, the couple plan to work for the wider good of society.
The central aim of the couple’s initiative is to bring long-term change for people by investing in fields such as education, health and scientific research, instead of handing most of their personal wealth to their children as an inheritance.
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