Mark Zuckerberg is not doing any “Charity” by giving away his 99% shares of Facebook

While there has been a lot of buzz around internet about Mark Zuckerberg along with her wife Priscilla Chan donating his shares worth $45 Billion for charity but we need to understand the whole thing.

Here is the letter which Mark and Priscilla wrote for their beloved daughter Max :

Now as per his letter he is not donating this amount to any of the non-profit bodies but he has formed an LLC for the same to which he is going to donate all this money. All this money will go to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, a family-run foundation that he controls and through which he will maintain control of Facebook for “the foreseeable future.”

Which actually means that it’s a very smart step by Mark Zuckerberg by putting all his money is such an initiative which will not only benefit him but also his forthcoming generation and that too untouched by estate taxes.

A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed in an email to BuzzFeed News. The spokeswoman further confirmed

the initiative is structured as an LLC, and not as a charitable trust.

While charity will certainly be one of the money’s destinations, it will be far from the only one.

The money, according to a Facebook SEC filing, will go to “philanthropic, public advocacy, and other activities for the public good.”

One such activity: private investment. A Facebook release this afternoon stated as much. “The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will pursue its mission by funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates, in each case with the goal of generating positive impact in areas of great need,” it said. “Any profits from investments in companies will be used to fund additional work to advance the mission.”

source: buzzfeed

As Michael Maiello in his Daily Beast piece reveals,

when we pay people like Zuckerberg to fund their own foundations, we are really helping the rich and coddled few even as we thank and honor them for their charity.

Also Anil Dash pens down it very beautifully in his post on medium that how we should look at this initiative of Mark Zuckerberg.

To sum up all this, Mark is not donating his money to any charity, but he is in a way investing this money in his own LLC, which will let him evade tax by converting his private assets into a foundation which will not only be beneficial for him but also the future generation of Zuckerberg family.