Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has donated 290,000 shares of company stock, worth about $31 million, to various charities.
The majority of the money will go to women’s empowerment groups and Lean In, Sandberg’s nonprofit supporting women in the workplace, according to CNBC.
The donations were made public in a document filed Jan. 14 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The stock was sold on Nov. 20 and transferred to the Sheryl Sandberg Philanthropy Fund.
In 2014, Sandberg signed the Giving Pledge, an effort started in 2010 by philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage more of the world’s affluent to give away at least half of their wealth to charitable causes. In 2012, Sandberg gave more than 400,000 shares of Facebook to an unknown recipient.
Sandberg’s husband Dave Goldberg died in May 2015 at the age of 47 while on vacation in Mexico. — jta