In a letter to their newborn daughter Max, the billionaire Facebook founder and chief executive and his physician wife pledged to give away 99% of Facebook shares in their lifetime, currently worth about $45 billion, to "advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation."
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative follows in the footsteps of the Gates Foundation started by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and wife Melinda Gates and is part of a wave of philanthropy from the Facebook generation of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
News of the Chan Zuckerberg initiative comes just days after Zuckerberg announced he would team up with Gates to invest in The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a clean energy fund, that will explore ideas that "have the potential to transform the way we all produce and consume energy."