Facebook Sheryl Sandberg COO donates nearly $100 mn to charity

Zee Media Bureau

New York: Facebook Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg has transferred nearly $100 million in Facebook stock into a charitable fund.

According to a report in the technology website Re/code on Wednesday, 880,000 shares were transferred into a donor advised fund which is controlled by Fidelity.

"Sandberg has the chance to steer the money where she wants it," the report added.

The fund includes women`s empowerment groups like Lean In (founded by Sandberg), anti-poverty organisations like Second Harvest Food Bank and grief organisations like Kara.

Sandberg has also filed paperwork to rename her current foundation the "Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation" after her late husband who died about 18 months ago.

The non-profit foundation will serve as an umbrella organisation for both LeanIn.org and a new one Sandberg is starting called OptionB.org which is intended to help people cope with loss and hardship.

This comes months after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan said they would donate more than $3 billion toward a plan to "cure, prevent or manage" disease.

Last December, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares -- about $45 billion -- to advance human potential and promote equality for children.

Declaring the "Chan Zuckerberg Initiative" as they welcomed their first girl Maxima Chan Zuckerberg, the couple said they have created a new foundation that would initially focus on "personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities".

"As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation," they posted in a 2,200-word letter to their new-born daughter on Facebook.

"We will give 99 percent of our Facebook shares during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others," the couple wrote.

With IANS Inputs