Back in September, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would be giving $100 million to the Newark school system, and it appears he's on a philanthropic roll. The 26-year-old has just joined Bill Gates, Paul Allen, David Rockefeller, George Lucas and many more billionaires in promising to give half of his money to charity.
The Giving Pledge encourages billionaires to give their money to charity at any time, before or after they die. However, in his letter to the foundation, Zuckerberg said he would be giving the money away while he was still young.
"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" Zuckerberg said in a statement. "With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts," he said.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Zuckerberg is among 16 new billionaires to join the Pledge; AOL co-founder Steve Case, investor Carl Icahn and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz have all promised to give half their wealth to charity too.
The Giving Pledge now has 57 members.
