Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show Fri to announce that he’s giving $ 100 million to create a charitable foundation, Startup:Education, that aims to “invest in educating and bettering the lives of young individuals.”
Zuckerberg’s $ 100 million grant, in the way of Facebook shares, will go towards enhancing Newark academic institutions. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who joined Zuckerberg on Oprah’s show together with New Jersey governor Chris Christie, will match his gift.
Even though Zuckerberg has little link with Newark–he was raised in Connecticut and now lives in California–he wrote in a blog post that Newark has “unfortunately become a symbol of public education’s failure–of a status quo that accepts schools that do not succeed.”
“I’ve had a lot of possibilities in my life, and a whole lot of this comes from having gone to really good schools,” he informed Oprah.
The message offered a rare peek into Zuckerberg’s personal life: his sparsely decorated house, which he rents, the Facebook offices, and also the CEO’s relationship with his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan.
In a tour of his home–the very first time cameras have been allowed inside–Zuckerberg is shown studying Chinese–”Priscilla and I are likely to visit China for a vacation at the end of the year,” he described–and even kissing Chan.
Given that “The Social Network” premieres tonight, numerous have questioned the timing of Zuckerberg’s statement. New York magazine called it the “PR move of the month.”
Nonetheless, Oprah mentioned that Zuckerberg had initially thought about making his donation anonymously. “You’re such a shy person and you have been talking about this for months and months and months,” she said. “You desired to stay anonymous and we talked you into coming on here.” She also told audiences that Zuckerberg had wanted to appear on her show previously in September, but that her season hadn’t yet started.
It took some persuation, but Oprah Winfrey was finally able to talk Mark Zuckerberg into making the $ 100 Million donation annoucement on her show. She’d like others, like Mark, to help make contributions to schools.