How Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's $1 Billion To Fight COVID-19 Is Making A Difference

Twitter and Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped forward to help COVID-19 relief efforts with a bold move.

The 43-year-old took to Twitter to pledge $1 billion worth of his shares of Square to fund the relief efforts.

Twitter

As per him, the donation marks almost 28% of Dorsey¡¯s life earnings.

If and when not in use for fighting COVID-19 spread, the money would be used for supporting girls¡¯ health and education and achieving universal basic income. At the time, that was approximately 28% of his net worth.

I¡¯m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% 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, all flows tracked here: https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz

¡ª jack (@jack) April 7, 2020

Even with the gigantic sum pledged to help others, this might not be the last time Dorsey picks up his philanthropic suit. Eventually, he plans to give away all of his money within his lifetime.

¡°I want to make sure that I¡¯m doing whatever I can in my lifetime to help that through my companies¡¯ works, through my own personal giving,¡± Dorsey told Andrew Yang on an episode of the ¡°Yang Speaks¡± podcast.

¡°I¡¯m so grateful, but part of gratitude is not just saying I¡¯m grateful, it¡¯s doing,¡± Dorsey told Yang. Dorsey imagines doing his part by donating money - ¡°I want to give out all my money in my lifetime. I want to see the impacts, selfishly, in my lifetime,¡± Dorsey told Yang.

Jack Dorsey's $1 Billion COVID-19 Donation

The Twitter CEO did not just toss the donation claim out in the air. He has made sure that the money can be tracked publicly via a Google document. Out of the $1 billion in stocks, $200 million has been liquidated into cash for dispersal. The rest grows, as with the stock price, the $1 billion investment has already reached a value of $1.5 billion.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (Image: Reuters)

The unorthodox way of charity had another reason for it. Dorsey did not want to start a foundation and pay the associated overhead expenses involved with running an organization. Instead, the charity amount through stocks has grown since the allocation and by the middle of the week, Dorsey had distributed $85 million plus already. The disbursement is quick and effective.

In the podcast, Dorsey relates the donations with his work on the microblogging platform. ¡°When you build something like a Twitter or Square, the greatest value is actually seeing someone else use it. That¡¯s what drives us. It feels electric,¡± Dorsey said. ¡°That electricity that I feel in those moments is the same that I¡¯m feeling right now when I give and when I know that these organizations that we¡¯re giving to are focused on real impact and doing things that are bigger than all of us and especially me,¡± he added. You can check out the complete interview below:

It is not uncommon to see billionaires doling out huge chunks of their wealth to help several sections of the global population. Because it is observed regularly, it is hard to keep an insight of what it means. Just to have a perspective, think of it this way - a 43 year old man has just given away $1 billion (~Rs 7600 crore) of his own wealth to help his fellow humans. That amount can straight up feed a hundred million homeless people with a $10 meal.

While he is still left with a huge bank balance, the gesture is not easy and most certainly cannot be expected from everyone. There is a special mental process that must be taking place in one¡¯s brain to have a go at this.

The real-life impact is of course unfathomable and those who can visualise it, are probably the ones worthy of having control of this amount of wealth.