CORONAVIRUS: TWITTER'S CEO JACK DORSEY PLEDGES $1BILLION TO CUSHION THE EFFECT OF THE PANDEMIC

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey is giving $1 billion to coronavirus relief efforts

Jack Dorsey is pledging $1 billion of his stake in Square Inc., the mobile payments company he co-founded, to help fund coronavirus relief efforts.

His donation, which he reports is about 28% of his estimated $3.9 billion net worth, is by far the largest yet by an individual. Other top philanthropists include Bill and Melinda Gates, whose foundation committed $100 million to develop a vaccine and support detection, isolation and treatment efforts.

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

— jack (@jack) April 7, 2020

Dorsey, who is CEO of both Square and Twitter, made the announcement on his social platform.

Remaining funds after the COVID-19 crisis will shift to supporting women's health and education and universal basic income, Dorsey tweeted.  

"Why now? The needs are increasingly urgent, and I want to see the impact in my lifetime," he wrote. "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."

All of the donations Dorsey makes will be tracked in a publicly available Google sheet. So far that document shows $100,000 has been granted to America’s Food Fund, which was started by Laurene Powell Jobs and Leonardo DeCaprio.

"It’s important to show my work so I and others can learn," Dorsey said.

Relief efforts have drawn sizable donations from other major corporate figures. Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, said he would donate $100 million to Feeding America. Michael and Susan Dell have also pledged $100 million to relief efforts.