Into Battle: The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Steps Up Its Advocacy Giving in a Big Way
A few years ago, when Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan created the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, they took some heat for incorporating it as an LLC—since such entities can operate with little transparency.
But the young couple are not alone among top donors in choosing this model—Laurene Powell Jobs and Pierre and Pam Omidyar also have LLCs —and there are good reasons to look beyond the traditional foundation structure. The LLC is a much better vehicle for the kind of multi-faceted approach to big problems that Chan and Zuckerberg favor.
From the start, CZI has sought to pull several major levers of change: It makes grants to 501(c)3 groups, which are paid out of a donor-advised fund housed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. It also invests in for-profit social enterprises. Finally, CZI is able to contribute to 501(c)4s and has created a fund, Chan Zuckerberg Advocacy, for that purpose. . .