Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan with their first baby. FACEBOOK PHOTO
How comforting to read about the efforts of the younger generation of philanthropists to change the planet for the better. The announcement of Americans Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan that they would give away 99 percent of their shares in Facebook to make the world a better place for their newborn daughter and other children stirs hope that there is light in an otherwise bleak future.
Zuckerberg posted a letter on Facebook dedicated to his baby: “Max, we love you and feel a great responsibility to leave the world a better place for you and all children. We wish you a life filled with the same love, hope and joy you give us. We can’t wait to see what you bring to this world.
“As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation.”
The couple’s donation—estimated at $45 billion—is considered the biggest single act of charity in the history of humankind. They have specified where the money is going: “Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.”
This is not the first time Chan and Zuckerberg gave away portions of their fortune. Earlier this year, they donated $120 million to schools in the Bay Area in California. They had also donated $100 million to improve the conditions of schools in Newark, New Jersey.
They are not alone among the megarich in their philanthropy. At the heart of all this is “Giving Pledge,” a promise by those with much to give to donate the bulk of their money to charity. Among the others committed to this project are mogul Barry Diller and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The list also includes another significant name: Bill Gates, popularly known as the richest person on Earth. He and his wife Melinda have been donors long before Giving Pledge. It was Gates, after all, who came up with the project.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has itself opened a new frontier in philanthropy—a study in the various ways billion-dollar tech enterprises can help the planet and its inhabitants. The Gates couple have donated $29.5 billion through their foundation to helping the development of education in America and health conditions worldwide.
Their foundation is one of the major financiers of the International Rice Research Institute (Irri) based in Los Baños, Laguna. Irri’s mission to develop “stress-tolerant” rice varities—thus ensuring a dependable food supply for developing countries—is squarely within the Gates couple’s goals. Bill Gates quietly visited Irri last April.
Thankfully, certain Filipinos are not loath to part with their wealth. Last August, Forbes Asia magazine included three Filipinos—Silicon Valley venture capitalist Diosdado Banatao, pawnshop chain owner Philippe J. Lhuillier and boxing champ Manny Pacquiao—in its list of Asia’s 40 “Heroes of Philanthropy.” They, according to Forbes Asia, “made news with their donations in the past year” and “have compiled a long record of supporting worthy causes.” (Last year, four other Filipinos made the list: Jose Mari Albert, Angelo King, Enrique Razon Jr. and Ricardo Po Sr.)
Tallwood Venture Capital’s Banatao, a farmer’s son, donated over $1.5 million to fight poverty. He runs the Salvador and Rosita Banatao Foundation, based in the province of Cagayan, which works to improve educational opportunities in his hometown of Iguig.
Lhuillier put up the Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation, which provides scholarships to poor students all over the Philippines and enables adult school dropouts to continue studying through Alternative Learning Centers.
Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee started the Heart Foundation, which has funded over 200 scholarships and dispensed over $400,000 in medical expenses to the most desperate patients.
These are but a few examples of giving, and giving back, for the purpose of extending help to those in dire need of it, of providing a leg up to the next generations, of doing one’s part in bringing about a better world. They provide a singular lesson in this season of hope that struggles to find a place in this era of large-scale and bare-faced thievery.