The World’s Top Philanthropists

5. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

Priscilla Chan (left) and Mark Zuckerberg (middle) visiting Los Pinos, Ciudad de México on September 5, 2014. Photo by Presidencia de la República Mexicana, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of social networking website Facebook. His net worth is estimated to be US $55.3 billion as of October 2016, ranking him as the 5th richest person in the world.

Priscilla Chan (born February 24, 1985) is an American philanthropist and pediatrician. She met and began dating Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University and married him on May 19, 2012, a day after Facebook's stock market launch.

Zuckerberg and Chan have pledged about USD 1.6 billion to charities, including a donation of $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan worked. In 2013, they gave 18 million Facebook shares (valued at more than $970 million) to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. They also pledged USD 120 million to public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.

To commemorate the birth of their first daughter, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg, on December 1, 2015, Zuckerberg and Chan announced they would give 99% of their Facebook shares (worth about $45 billion at the time) to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The aim of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is to "advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy".

In 2015, they gave away USD 126 million to charity, which totals up their lifetime donation to USD 1.6 billion so far.