Sheryl Sandberg Sets Aside $100 Million In Facebook Stock To Give To Charity

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has set aside about $100 million worth of Facebook stock to contribute to charitable organizations, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed Wednesday.

Sandberg’s donation is notable partly because it’s intended to support women’s rights and grief support causes ― two areas that are important to her personally.

The filing indicates that the executive put 880,000 Facebook shares into the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Fund, a public charity that allows donors to make contributions and receive immediate tax benefits. Sandberg plans to direct the money toward Lean In, an organization she founded to encourage female empowerment in the workplace, as well as anti-poverty organizations like Second Harvest Food Bank and grief support organizations like Kara, according to Re/Code.

She also plans to put funds toward OptionB.Org, a foundation she is starting to address healing in the face of adversity. The death of her late husband, Dave Goldberg, inspired its creation. Sandberg is also co-authoring a book titled Option B with writer Adam Grant.

Many tech bigwigs, including Sandberg, took the Giving Pledge to promise to give away much of their wealth to charity. But her causes differ from many of theirs, as well as from those of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose primary charitable focus has been education and curing diseases.