Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was America’s most generous donor in 2013, giving nearly $1 billion of his fortune to charity, according to a magazine report on Monday.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which tracks charitable giving in the United States, said Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan gave 18 million shares of Facebook stock, valued at some $992 million, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
The Mountain View, California-based foundation specializes in investment and management of charitable funds, with some $4.7 billion in assets under management.
Over the past two years, Zuckerberg and his wife, a physician, have given 36 million Facebook shares to the fund, valued at about $1.5 billion.
The couple dedicated their 2012 funds managed by the group for health and education, the Chronicle of Education wrote.
Zuckerberg, who turns 30 later this year, is the youngest benefactor ever to top the magazine’s annual charitable donations list.
His net worth was estimated by Forbes magazine at $19 billion as of
September, making him the 20th richest in the United States.
That figure is believed to have shot up, however, thanks to a healthy rise in the value of Facebook shares, and now is approaching $30 billion, the market intelligence firm Wealth-X estimated recently.
Last year, the Facebook mogul and his wife occupied the number two spot in charitable giving, making donations of nearly a half billion dollars in 2012.
First place went to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who gave about $3 billion to charity in 2012.
