Jack Dorsey invites you to follow along via Google Docs as he spends $1 billion on COVID-19 relief
Jack Dorsey has officially thrown his hat in the rich-person-fighting-COVID-19 ring.
Dorsey, the CEO of both Twitter and Square, announced on Tuesday that he will transfer a significant portion of his equity in the latter company to an LLC. The stated goal of that LLC, at least initially, will be responding to the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
"I'm moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief," wrote the CEO. "After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girls' health and education, and UBI."
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Notably, the CEO invited everyone to follow along at home via shared Google Doc. At the time of this writing, the document suggests that $100,000 was given to America's Food Fund on April 2 — though the "link" field, presumably where proof of the transfer will live, was blank.
We attempted to reach Dorsey in order to determine both the timeline of the transfer and who will oversee the Start Small fund, but Square declined to comment on those questions.
"Per the spreadsheet Jack shared in his tweets, you can see transfers and donations already," wrote Aaron Zamost, Square's head of communications and policy, over email. "We'll decline to comment on other procedural details at this time."
The CEO did provide some additional, albeit limited, insight into the Start Small LLC, however.
"Why is #startsmall a LLC," he wrote. "This segments and dedicates my shares to these causes, and provides flexibility. Grants will be made from Start Small Foundation or the LLC directly based on the beneficiary org."
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Notably, moving his equity to an LLC and not, say, an established 501(c)(3) non-profit allows Dorsey an added level of control over how the funds are allocated. It follows in the footsteps of Mark Zuckerberg, who in 2015 pledged to "give" 99 percent of his Facebook shares to an LLC of his creation over the course of his life.
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"The needs are increasingly urgent, and I want to see the impact in my lifetime," wrote Dorsey of his decision. "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."
So bookmark that Google Doc and buckle in for the cash-filled ride. Hopefully it's not a long one.
