Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has decided to donate USD 31 million in Facebook stock to charity, days after her boss Mark Zuckerberg pledged to give away 99 per cent of his company shares.
Sanderberg, 46, donated 290,000 shares of Facebook stock at "a market value of roughly USD 31 million" to various charities, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document.
The shares are now in the Sheryl Sandberg Philanthropy Fund, a donor-advised fund. Much of the money will go to causes that Sandberg has supported in the past. She has also given to women's empowerment groups, such as Lean In,to help support women in the workplace, SiliconValley.Com reported today.
Sandberg also plans to give to anti-poverty efforts and educational groups. She is the co-chair of the Stand Up for Kids Campaign for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara & San Mateo Counties.
In 2014, Sandberg signed The Giving Pledge, the commitment by wealthy people to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy in their lifetime, the report said.
In December, 31-year-old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the birth of his first child as he and his wife pledged to give away 99 per cent of his company shares worth a whopping USD 45 billion to make the world a "better place" for daughter Maxima and other children.
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Mehta said this initiative is never-ending and would continue evenafter covering 29 states and 100 cities as there would be new technologies and platforms created in future, which wouldprompt them to update entrepreneurs.
Asked about the success stories, he said, "If the entrepreneurs who know to use Facebook... They are the ones who definitely have tasted success. There aresuccess stories everywhere - that is encouraging us to go tomore and more cities so that we can talk about their successstories."
However, these successes have not come about overnight as it takes time and energy to improvebusiness content to reach out to customers, Mehta said.
"This definitely is success, but not an overnight success. If you start a Facebook page today, you are notgoing to taste success tomorrow itself. You need to improveyour content to reach out to customers to better yourbusiness," Mehta said.
