Mark Zuckerberg Priscilla Chan skänker 99 procent av sina aktier i Facebook till en egen stiftelse. Paret kommer dock att behålla aktiernas röstvärde och grundaren Mark Zuckerberg kommer fortfarande att behålla kontrollen över den sociala tjänsten.

Värdet är svindlande, 45 miljarder dollar, som nu går till en stiftelse som ska jobba för barns bästa och för jämlikhet. Tillkännagivandet kom på Facebook i form av ett brev till parets nyfödda dotter.

Dear Max,
Your mother and I don’t yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future. Your new life is full of promise, and we hope you will be happy and healthy so you can explore it fully. You’ve already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in. …
Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook’s CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives.
As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be 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. 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.

Initiativet applåderas av bland andra Warren Buffet och Melissa Gates som gjort liknande utfästelser och som skänkt stora summor till olika stiftelser och välgörenhetsorganisationer.