Because of the questions raised by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement on Tuesday that he would donate 99 percent of his Facebook shares, or about $45 billion, to charity, the new father posted on Thursday an explanation.
First, he listed four focus areas that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative would spend the donation made to celebrate the birth last week of Maxima, his and Priscilla's daughter. These are personalized learning, curing ailments, connecting people and building strong communities.
The questions raised was his structuring of the Initiative as a limited liability company (LLC) instead of a nonprofit organization, which some people think was done to avoid taxes.
He then explains, "By using an LLC instead of a traditional foundation, we receive no tax benefit from transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively. In fact, if we transferred our shares to a traditional foundation, then we would have received an immediate tax benefit, but by using an LLC we do not. And just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC," quotes Techcrunch.
Zuckerberg adds that using an LLC allows them to pursue their mission of funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates to generate "a positive impact in areas of great need." He cited as an example the Breakthrough Energy Coalition he established with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that would invest in clean energy.
The New York Times points out that Zuckerberg had used LLCs in the past for their other community-oriented projects such as the MasteryConnect, an educational measurement company where they invested $5 million in September through the Zuckerberg Education Ventures LLC.