Mark Zuckerberg responds to critics of his philanthrophy project, addresses concerns that the structure was a way to avoid taxes

Mark Zuckerberg in a post on Facebook defended
his plans to transfer 99 per cent of his family's
Facebook stock to a limited liability company that
would pursue various community projects.
The CEO and controlling shareholder of
Facebook, said that he and his wife Priscilla Chan,
were channeling their wealth through the
company instead of a more traditional foundation
to give themselves maximum flexibility "to
pursue our mission by funding nonprofit
organizations. In the post shared last night,
Zuckerberg addressed concerns that the move
was a way to avoid taxes on the $45 billion block
of stock.
"I want to thank you all for your heartwarming
congratulations on Max's birth and on starting
theChan Zuckerberg Initiative. This whole
community has been so loving and supportive."
he wrote
If you're interested in following the philanthropy
work we're doing with the Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative, I encourage you to like the page
here: https://web.facebook.com/
chanzuckerberginitiative
Since we announced this a couple days ago,
many people have asked about what we're
planning to focus on and how we're structuring
our work.
Our initial focus areas are personalized learning,
curing disease, connecting people and building
strong communities. We've already made many
investments over the past five years in these
areas -- education, science, health, internet
access and inclusion -- and you can see a
summary of our investments on the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative page timeline.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is structured as
an LLC rather than a traditional foundation. This
enables us to pursue our mission by funding non-
profit organizations, making private investments
and participating in policy debates -- in each
case with the goal of generating a positive
impact in areas of great need. Any net profits
from investments will also be used to advance
this mission.
By using an LLC instead of a traditional
foundation, we receive no tax benefit from
transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our
mission more effectively. In fact, if we transferred
our shares to a traditional foundation, then we
would have received an immediate tax benefit,
but by using an LLC we do not. And just like
everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes
when our shares are sold by the LLC.
What's most important to us is the flexibility to
give to the organizations that will do the best
work -- regardless of how they're structured. For
example, our education work has been funded
through a non-profit organization,Startup:
Education, the recently announcedBreakthrough
Energy Coalition will make private investments in
clean energy, and we also fund public
government efforts, like the CDC Ebola response
and San Francisco General Hospital.
We'll have more to share soon, and if you want
more information I recommend liking the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative page.
Thanks again for all of your support and interest.
This community has been amazing and we're
excited to get started on this work together
when we're back from parental leave!"