Zuckerberg donates $500 million

SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced he has given $500 million to a non-profit donation fund to help improve health and education.

Zuckerberg gave the donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation of San Mateo, Calif., which advises donors in allocating funds according to the donors' interests, CNNMoney reported Tuesday.

The amount is the largest the foundation has ever received, CNNMoney reported.

Zuckerberg donated 18 million Facebook shares, the Tuesday's closing price of which was $27.71 per share and amounted to $498 million, CNNMoney said.

Zuckerberg, who posted the announcement of the gift on Facebook, said he and Priscilla Chan, his wife, pledged to donate $100 million worth of Facebook shares to help improve Newark, N.J.'s public education. The donation was made according to the couples' participation in the Giving Pledge, a program initiated by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to encourage billionaires to give most of their money to worthy causes, CNNMoney reported.

"I'm hopeful we'll be able to have as positive an impact in our next set of projects," Zuckerberg said.