Twitter chief Jack Dorsey pledges quarter of his fortune to coronavirus fight

Jack Dorsey plans to donate US$1 billion ($1.63 billion) to fight the coronavirus outbreak, funds that will drive research to help “disarm this pandemic”.

The Twitter CEO’s pledge is by far the largest gift by a private individual yet during the pandemic.

Mr Dorsey, 43, who co-founded Twitter in 2006 and went on to found payments company Square, tweeted on Tuesday that he was donating $1bn of Square shares to a charitable fund called Start Small, to “fund global Covid-19 relief”.

I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz

— jack (@jack) April 7, 2020

The sum not only dwarfs contributions by other philanthropists; it represents a significant proportion of Mr Dorsey’s fortune.

He said the donation was equivalent to about “28% of my wealth”. Dorsey has amassed riches of about US$3.9 billion ($6.35 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s richest person, has said he will donate US$100 million ($163 million) to food bank charity Feeding America.

“Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately Covid-19 is amplifying that stress significantly,” Mr Bezos, 56, said in an Instagram post last week.

 

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Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately COVID-19 is amplifying that stress significantly. Non-profit food banks and food pantries rely in large part on surplus food from a range of food businesses. For example, many restaurants donate excess food. But during this time of social distancing, restaurants are closed, and many other normal channels of excess food have also shut down. To make matters worse, as supply is dwindling, demand for food bank services is going up.⁣ ⁣ Today, I want to support those on the front lines at our nation’s food banks and those who are relying on them for food with a $100 million gift to @FeedingAmerica. Feeding America will quickly distribute the funds to their national network of food banks and food pantries, getting food to those countless families who need it.⁣ ⁣ Feeding America is the largest non-profit focused on food security. Millions of Americans are turning to food banks during this time. If you want to help, the link to Feeding America is in my bio. They’d be excited and grateful for donations of any size.

A post shared by Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos) on Apr 2, 2020 at 11:00am PDT

Mr Bezos’ donation represents less than 0.1% of his estimated US$123 billion ($200 billion) fortune.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given US$100 million ($163 million) to efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and to fund testing and treatments.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has offered more than US$25 million ($40.7 million) to help research through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell computers, has committed $100 million ($163 million).

Mr Dorsey says all of the gift’s donations will be tracked through a public Google Sheet. That document shows $100,000 has been given so far to America’s Food Fund, an organisation co-founded by Laurene Powell Jobs and Leonardo DeCaprio.

After the coronavirus outbreak has been contained, Start Small will shift its focus to funding girls’ health and education, as well as universal basic income, a regular cash payment made to citizens by the government, Mr Dorsey said.

Why UBI and girl’s health and education? I believe they represent the best long-term solutions to the existential problems facing the world. UBI is a great idea needing experimentation. Girl’s health and education is critical to balance: https://t.co/dC3dU6hvxB

— jack (@jack) April 7, 2020

“I hope this inspires others to do something similar,” Mr Dorsey said of his contribution.

“Life is too short, so let’s do everything we can today to help people now.”

The post Twitter chief Jack Dorsey pledges quarter of his fortune to coronavirus fight appeared first on The New Daily.

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