The Zuckerbergs give it all away (well 99%)

[Midpack]

https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-letter-to-our-daughter/10153375081581634

Our hopes for your generation focus on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality.

Advancing human potential is about pushing the boundaries on how great a human life can be.

Promoting equality is about making sure everyone has access to these opportunities -- regardless of the nation, families or circumstances they are born into.

We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission. 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.

 

[LARS]

Good for them (truly), but it still leaves them (daughter on inheritance) with close to $500 million. Just saying...

 

[marko]

Good for them (truly), but it still leaves them (daughter on inheritance) with close to $500 million. Just saying...

+1 and I don't expect to see their daughter on this forum in 30-40 years with 'can I retire?' questions.

 

[jon-nyc]

Good for them!

 

[Car-Guy]

Might be a good idea to diversify 10 or 20 billion dollars worth of those shares if he's going to hold them for a while.

 

[Fermion]

Trying not to be cynical here but he said within our lifetimes, and he is still really young.

Figure sometime Facebook will start to pay dividends. Even if he does end up giving away 99% of the shares over the next 50 years, he will probably make about 20 billion in dividends before those last shares are gone.

Look at Microsoft. Bill sells shares left and right for his charity and still has a crapload. Just one quarterly dividend from the shares he still has would set up any one of us for a lifetime.

 

[pb4uski]

...Look at Microsoft. Bill sells shares left and right for his charity and still has a crapload. Just one quarterly dividend from the shares he still has would set up any one of us for a lifetime.

36 cents a share * 330 million shares would be $119 million... would set a whole bunch of us up for a lifetime.

 

[aaronc879]

Gates and Buffet have said the same thing and they're still worth 10s of Billions so it's not like they are giving it all away anytime soon, just a little at a time.

 

[FUEGO]

I think he said he would give away a billion per year for next three years at least.

I wish I could give away tens of billions.

Although I just ran ******** yesterday and some scenarios ended with $10 million in median portfolio value when I'm in my 80's. Still a few dozen billion short of what Mark has I guess.

 

[Mulligan]

Trying not to be cynical here but he said within our lifetimes, and he is still really young.

Figure sometime Facebook will start to pay dividends. Even if he does end up giving away 99% of the shares over the next 50 years, he will probably make about 20 billion in dividends before those last shares are gone.

Look at Microsoft. Bill sells shares left and right for his charity and still has a crapload. Just one quarterly dividend from the shares he still has would set up any one of us for a lifetime.

Yes the money is staggering. Bill has twice as much money as our entire teachers state pension system has.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Senator]

He will give it away, but will still be rich beyond anyone's imagination.

If he really wants to make a statement, he should really give it all away. He will live on a billion a year, and them claim someone making $100K a year should pay more taxes.

 

[W2R]

Trying not to be cynical here but he said within our lifetimes, and he is still really young.

Oh! Very observant. I didn't notice that, and it's a good point. He didn't phrase it that way by accident.

 

[Calico]

Trying not to be cynical here but he said within our lifetimes, and he is still really young.

Figure sometime Facebook will start to pay dividends. Even if he does end up giving away 99% of the shares over the next 50 years, he will probably make about 20 billion in dividends before those last shares are gone.

Look at Microsoft. Bill sells shares left and right for his charity and still has a crapload. Just one quarterly dividend from the shares he still has would set up any one of us for a lifetime.

None of which negates the fact that the billions they will give away will do a lot of good for a lot of people.

 

[Fermion]

None of which negates the fact that the billions they will give away will do a lot of good for a lot of people.

Sure, maybe it will. A person dropping a $10 bill into a Salvation Army bucket though has likely made a greater sacrifice and yet gets no front page news article.

 

[Meadbh]

Good for them, I say. They didn't have to give anything away, and they can do a lot of good. If they structure their donations well, they should save themselves a bundle in taxes, too.

 

[Midpack]

Amazing cynicism. They don't have to give anything, and it will amount to billions, but that's not a sacrifice worthy of note?

A person dropping a $10 bill into a Salvation Army bucket though has likely made a greater sacrifice.

How do you figure?

 

[ziggy29]

Sure, maybe it will. A person dropping a $10 bill into a Salvation Army bucket though has likely made a greater sacrifice and yet gets no front page news article.

Maybe. maybe not... but an average person dropping a sawbuck into a Salvation Army kettle is not news, for three reasons: (a) the donor is likely not famous and newsworthy; (b) the amount does not make the news and (c) it probably happens a thousand times a day across the country.

I think it is pretty sad that there is so much cynicism about this.

 

[Major Tom]

I think it is pretty sad that there is so much cynicism about this.

I just came across this thread and those were my thoughts too. Great business minds like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are not just giving their money to these causes. They are also bringing their influence, connections, and significant problem-solving skills. I welcome this.

Now, if we can get Elon Musk on board too, just think what can be achieved!

 

[Senator]

None of which negates the fact that the billions they will give away will do a lot of good for a lot of people.

That is all true. They said they will give away FB stock, not cash. They get the stepped up basis for a stock donation, and likely pay NO income tax on their real earnings the rest of their lives. Just a little bit a year to cover their $1B in income that they will receive. I am sure their cost basis of the stock is near $0.

There is more to it than charity.

 

[Mo Money]

+1 Ziggy and Major Tom. Who on this board is going to give away 99% of his/her assets during their lifetime? Maybe three of us will leave everything to charity, but that will likely be when our lifetimes are over. Philanthropy may be driven by generosity or by a less-generous desire for fame or a tax benefit -- but it still spreads the wealth and helps make the world a better place.

 

[Nunthewiser]

I think it's a huge contribution. I just can't imagine what you can do with that much money -
that once you get to a billion, anything after that is just numbers. What needs to happen is that the hundreds or thousands of billionaires get the message.

 

[Slow But Steady]

I hears on NPR this morning that the Chan-Zuckerberg foundation won't be set up as a charity. Instead it will be an LLC, so they can do other things that a charity can't do, like invest in for-profit research or advocate for policy change.

I respect them for thinking out of the box on how to make their money work for good as well as for committing to give so much away.

By the way, she's 30 and he's 31.

 

[Car-Guy]

What needs to happen is that the hundreds or thousands of billionaires get the message.

Better stick with "hundreds" since there are less than 2000 billionaires world wide, in 2015, according to Forbes. (According to the Forbes 2015 list there are 1826 billionaires world wide, and 526 of those are in the US)

 

[Bestwifeever]

Cynical is my middle name, but I am impressed. I'll google it now but I imagine that besides ths gesture, he has given the equivalent of my $10 to the SA bell ringer many times over.

 

[RunningBum]

I am impressed too. Some of those guys use wealth as a measuring stick and just try to pile up as much as possible. It's great that others are giving a very significant amount of it back. It doesn't bother me that what they are keeping still makes them uber rich.