Gulf Today: [2] Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced to set aside $1 billion or just under a third of his total wealth to fight the pandemic.
[3] In a series of tweets, he said it’s important to show his work so others can learn.
[4] Dorsey said he would put 28 percent of his wealth, in the form of shares in his mobile payments company Square, into a limited liability company that he had created, called Start Small. Start Small would make grants to beneficiaries, he said, with the expenditures to be recorded in a publicly accessible Google document.
[5] “I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (28 per cent 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,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey also tweeted a link to a public Google Doc where people can track which organisations the fund’s money will go to.
[6] He said the needs are increasingly urgent, and he wants to see the impact in his lifetime.
[7] “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,” he noted.
[8] Jack said he has funded $40 million in grants to many organisations with proven impact and efficiency in the past, mostly anonymously.
[9] Dorsey, 43, joins a growing list of celebrities, world leaders and technologists who are earmarking some portion of their wealth to fighting the spread of the coronavirus and its effects.
[10 Oprah Winfrey has donated more than $10 million of her personal wealth to Covid-19 relief efforts, while other Hollywood personalities — including Justin Timberlake, Dolly Parton and Rihanna — have also made contributions.