Following Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that he and his wife Priscilla Chan will dedicate 99 percent of their wealth to the new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, many are asking how their estimated $45 billion would be best spent.
The couples’ stated intention to “advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy” is ambitious, but must be carefully directed to achieve the same success for human development that Facebook has achieved as a business and the world’s largest social network — with 1.55 billion monthly active users in 2015’s third quarter (more than the population of China).
Some say the best ways for Zuckerberg to execute his ideas for philanthropy would be to apply the same methods that steered the exponential growth of his business. Take Adam Davidson, an economics writer for the New York Times: “Whatever you think of Silicon Valley, the venture-capital philosophy of investing can be an extremely useful model for philanthropy.”
About the author
John Hewko
John Hewko is the general secretary of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. From 2004 to 2009, Hewko was vice president for operations and compact development for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government agency established in 2004 to deliver foreign assistance to the world’s poorest countries. At MCC, he was the principal U.S. negotiator for foreign assistance agreements to 26 countries in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union. As general secretary, Hewko leads a diverse staff of 800 at Rotary International’s world headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and seven international offices.