It seems fitting that on the day that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History unveiled its Giving in America exhibit — with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett presiding — Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, and his wife Priscilla Chan, made a claim for the inauguration of a new chapter in the history of philanthropy, one dominated by the mushrooming fortunes of Silicon Valley.
In a post on Facebook to their newborn daughter Max, the couple announced that they would turn over 99% of their Facebook shares — with a current value of around $45bnn — “during our lives” to advance a mission of “advancing human potential and promoting equality for all children in the next generation”. This is a big deal, one of the largest philanthropic pledges ever made. But how much of a rupture it represents in the tradition of modern US philanthropy isn’t entirely clear. The Smithsonian might not need to add another display case just yet.
It’s worth dwelling a bit on that phrase “during our lives,” for with it, Zuckerberg and Chan place themselves at the forefront of an important development in the philanthropic sector: the Giving While Living movement. It’s not exactly new: more than a century ago, in his Gospel of Wealth, the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie sought to steer millionaires away from the charitable bequest toward warm-blooded inter vivos giving. Only in this way could they assume active stewardship over the disbursement of their fortunes, applying the knowledge, expertise and temperament that gained them their piles toward the difficult task of giving them away. This idea has once again come into vogue, but with a significant new twist. The tech and finance booms have allowed individuals to accumulate enormous sums of money at a startlingly young age. So there is even more giving and even more living to do than ever before.
Source: theguardian.com
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