SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey said he was committing $1 billion of his personal fortune to coronavirus relief through his philanthropic fund.
Dorsey said in a series of tweets that he would transfer his equity in his digital payments group Square to his limited liability corporation Start Small, contributing around 28 percent of his overall wealth.
“Why now? The needs are increasingly urgent, and I want to see the impact in my lifetime,” Dorsey said. “I hope this inspires others to do something similar. Life is too short, so let’s do everything we can today to help people now.”
The move could be the largest from a single individual for coronavirus relief and comes with the pandemic spanning the globe and inflicting a heavy toll in lives and economic devastation on the United States.
Dorsey said the fund would focus on health and education for girls and universal basic income efforts after the pandemic ends.
Dorsey, who is CEO of both Twitter and Square, has created a foundation as well as the Start Small LLC to allow for flexibility in funding startups and efforts a foundation may be ineligible to fund.
A document link tweeted by Dorsey showed the new fund had already pledged $100,000 to a new initiative called America’s Food Fund launched by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Dorsey’s net worth is estimated at about $3 billion including his stake in Twitter and Square. “The impact this money will have should benefit both companies over the long-term because it’s helping the people we want to serve,” he said.
Other technology entrepreneurs have pledged relief efforts in varying amounts. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has pledged $100 million to help food relief efforts during the pandemic.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has offered more than $25 million to help research through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation last month pledged $125 million for research but is investing in a variety of projects.
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
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