Tuesday, January 5, 2016
The Next Generation in Philanthropy: From The Rockefeller Foundation To The Zuckerberg Chan Initiative
When $45 billion dollars is pledged to charity, it’s bound to start a lot of conversations. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan recently shared they intend to move 99 percent of their Facebook shares into a limited liability company (LLC) for charitable purposes. Justifiably, this announcement has received a lot of attention and has started a conversation about the next generation of philanthropy. A notable twist was the choice to set-up the Zuckerberg Chan Initiative as an LLC, rather than the traditional philanthropic routes such as, creating a trust or foundation or giving the shares directly to charity. The choice of structure has some interesting control and tax implications, but in the end the Zuckerberg Chan Initiative is less about avoiding legal structures and tax strategies than it is about innovating the philosophy of philanthropy.
This recent announcement, from a modern technological billionaire using the latest technology to shake up the philanthropic world, echoes the thoughts and actions of another notable American, John D. Rockefeller. Adjusting for inflation, John D. Rockefeller may have been the wealthiest American to have ever lived, holding assets estimated at $253 billion in today’s dollars. In his lifetime, he actively supported the University of Chicago, helped found the General Board of Education and formed the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the most recognizable names in philanthropy. The goals of the foundation echo many of the same ideals of the Zuckerberg Chan Initiative: reducing global poverty, eradicating preventable fatal disease and bolstering education worldwide. The Rockefeller Foundation today is worth a far more modest $4 billion, but has been setting a standard for philanthropy for the past 100 years. . .