Elon Musk, known as much for trolling charity executives as for his donations, is beginning to make good on his pledge to give at least half of his assets to charity, with donations worth $5.7 billion to an unidentified charity or charities in November.
Musk, the CEO of electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla, has been criticized in recent years for making relatively modest gifts to charity considering the exponential increases in his wealth. Forbes ranks Musk as the wealthiest individual in the world, with a net worth of $247 billion, thanks to the surge in Tesla’s stock price in recent years.
The November gifts were made with no announcement and became apparent only through a mandatory securities filing on Monday. Musk donated about 5 million Tesla shares, which were worth about $5.7 billion at the time of the gifts. The shares might have been sold by now, but if not, the value of the donations has dropped by about $1 billion since November due to declines in Tesla’s stock price.
Musk signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, committing to give a majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes. But his known giving until recently has been minimal. A 2021 Vox article estimated that Musk had given just 0.05 percent of his then-net worth to charity during his lifetime.
The November gifts may have been related to large Tesla stock sales, totaling $16 billion, that Musk made in late 2021. The large gains Musk had made on the donated shares would not be subject to tax, and the value of the donations provides a charitable deduction, subject to limitations.
‘Way Harder Than It Seems’
Musk declined to provide information about his giving to the Chronicle as it was compiling the Philanthropy 50 — its list of the biggest donors of 2021. The contributions revealed Monday put him in second place on the list, behind only Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates who gave $15 billion to their foundation.
Tesla officials didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to a request for an interview with Musk.
Michael Moody, a philanthropy professor at Grand Valley State University, says Musk and others, including Jeff Bezos, see charitable donations as just one tool for improving society, and so they may be less interested in attracting attention for their giving than previous generations of donors.
“If you talk to them about the ways they think they’re using their assets for good in the world, they wouldn’t just talk about [their philanthropic giving],” Mood says. “They’d talk about changes they’re making in their supply chain or investments in exploring future scenarios that may benefit mankind. Some of these things wouldn’t be captured in the Philanthropy 50. It’s an interesting challenge going forward.”
In early 2021, Musk turned to Twitter for philanthropic advice, calling productive giving “way harder than it seems.” In October, he trolled David Beasley of the World Food Program, writing on Twitter that he would give $6 billion to the United Nations World Food Program if it could describe how the money would solve world hunger.
In a statement to the Associated Press on Tuesday, Beasley said that his organization had not received any funds from Musk, but he called the Tesla CEO’s donations “an amazing and great first step.”
In February 2021, Musk’s foundation gave $100 million to the XPrize Foundation for a competition that will provide awards to creators of environmental projects that pull carbon from the atmosphere and ocean. Also in 2021, Musk gave $55 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to supplement an even larger gift by the billionaire Jared Isaacman. The contributions were part of a fundraising effort related to Isaacman’s first all-civilian trip to space on a rocket created by SpaceX, another Musk company.
