Jack Dorsey donating 28% of his wealth to 'disarm' COVID-19
What's the story
In a major move, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and payments platform Square, has announced the decision to donate $1 billion, or about 28% of his wealth, to aid COVID-19 relief efforts. The donation, as Dorsey explained in a tweet, will be first utilized to disarm the pandemic and then dispersed to other charities. Here's all you need to know about it.
Donation
$1 billion worth equity in Square to be donated
A few hours ago, Dorsey announced in a tweet that he will donate $1 billion worth of his equity in Square (19,833,400 shares at current price) to fund COVID-19 relief around the world. The funds would be channeled through Start Small Foundation LLC, Dorsey said while noting that the amount being donated equates to about 28% of his total net worth of $3.6 billion.
Utilization
Dispersion of funds to be openly tracked
Though Start Small is a donor-advised fund that is not obliged to reveal where its money is directed, Dorsey said that the money he is pumping into the foundation will be publicly tracked. He shared a Google Sheet, which will be updated regularly to show where the money from the $1 billion has been dispersed and for what purpose.
Other efforts
After COVID-19, the funds would drive other initiatives
Dorsey said that once the pandemic has been collectively disarmed, the money in the fund would be used for girl health and education as well as universal basic income. "I believe they represent the best long-term solutions to the existential problems facing the world," he said, adding that "UBI is a great idea needing experimentation [and] girl's health and education is critical to balance."
Effort
This is Dorsey's biggest philanthropic effort
While Dorsey isn't as wealthy as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg or Amazon's Jeff Bezos, he made it to the global billionaires' list, thanks to the surging value of Twitter and Square shares. This is also the biggest philanthropic effort of his career, something that he asserted was urgently needed and may inspire others to do something similar to help people.
Twitter Post
Here is Dorsey's announcement
I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz
— jack (@jack) April 7, 2020