Twitter and Square CEO, Jack Dorsey is pledging $1 billion to assist the ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic. This is the single largest donation by an individual during this pandemic.
He will complete the $1 billion pledge using his equity from Square, representing around 30% of his estimated wealth.
Announcing his decision on Twitter, Jack says the funds would later shift to support efforts for women’s health, education and universal basic income after the end of the COVID-19 epidemic.
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
“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,” Jack also wrote in a follow-up tweet.
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For transparency, Jack says the donations will be uploaded to a public Google sheet as they are dispersed. The sheet shows that a donation of $100,000 had already been made to America’s Food Fund. America’s Food Fund is an organization co-founded by Laurene Powell Jobs and Actor, Leonardo DeCaprio.
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Forbes estimates that Jack’s net worth is around $3.3 billion. This includes his stake in both Twitter and Square. The billionaire also explained that he chose to use his equity from Square because ‘[he owned] a lot more Square’.
Dorsey adds that he would pace the sale of the Square equity over time.
“The impact this money will have should benefit both companies over the long-term because it’s helping the people we want to serve,” he said.
Jack Dorsey’s $1 billion pledge is following efforts by other tech founders to contribute towards helping governments battle the pandemic.
Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos pledged $100 million to help food banks while Facebook Founder Zuckerberg and His Wife, Priscilla also pledged more than $25 million to fund research through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation last month pledged $125 million for research and the distribution of coronavirus testing kits as well.
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