Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey is being applauded for his remarkable donation to coronavirus relief. He’s also getting high marks for making the relief effort transparent.
While other billionaires have announced significant donations to combat the pandemic and the anticipated economic turmoil, Dorsey’s pledge is by far the biggest announced so far. Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, will donate $100 million to Feeding America. Michael and Susan Dell have committed another $100 million to global relief efforts, while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged a similar amount to develop a vaccine and pay for detection, isolation and treatment efforts.
As for why Dorsey is committing so much money now, he points out, “The needs are increasingly urgent, and I want to see the impact in my lifetime. I hope this inspires others to do something similar. Life is too short, so let’s do everything we can today to help people now. “
And VOX has more on why Dorsey pointed out this is an LLC:
Billionaire philanthropists like LLCs because they offer the donor flexibility in how the money can be used. But transparency advocates have long criticized LLCs — which have been established by other tech philanthropists like Mark Zuckerberg, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Pierre Omidyar — for evading some public disclosures about the types of gifts they make. Dorsey is also using a donor-advised fund, which are similarly opaque, to facilitate some grants.
But Dorsey, who does not have a long public record as a philanthropist, is taking steps to mitigate those concerns: He has promised to reveal all of the donations he has made on a public spreadsheet, which he tweeted a link to on Tuesday.
Dorsey said, “Why the transparency? It’s important to show my work so I and others can learn. I’ve discovered and funded ($40mm) many orgs with proven impact and efficiency in the past, mostly anonymously. Going forward, all grants will be public. Suggestions welcome.”
