FACEBOOK FOUNDER ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION DONATION

26.09.2010 [13:51]
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Baku, September 26 (AZERTAC). Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday he is donating $100 million toward improving public schools in Newark, New Jersey.

"Every child deserves a good education, and right now it`s not happening" Zuckerberg said.

His donation will be the first grant handed out by his new foundation, Startup: Education, an entity financed by him and focused on bettering education in the United States.

Zuckerberg appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Friday, alongside Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Booker told Winfrey that Zuckerberg wanted the donation to be anonymous at first, but was persuaded to make the announcement public, hoping it would inspire others to donate as well.

With an estimated net worth of $6.9 billion, Zuckerberg ranked 35th on this year`s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans -- up from 158th last year.

At 26, he and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz are the youngest billionaires on the list.

The announcement comes a week ahead of the release of "The Social Network" -- a highly anticipated movie about the early years of the social networking powerhouse.

The movie and the book it is based on -- "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich -- do not depict Zuckerberg in the most favorable of lights.

FACEBOOK FOUNDER ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION DONATION

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