Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg donates $100 mn to charity

Facebook Inc.'s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has transferred $100 million worth of the social networking giant's stock into a fund which is meant for philanthropic donations, according to a report by Recode citing the latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sandberg has transferred 880,000 shares of Facebook into the donor advised fund which allows her to move the money where she wants.

The funds will go to women's empowerment groups like Lean In, which was founded by Sandberg, anti-poverty organisations like Second Harvest Food Bank, and grief organisations like Kara, according to people familiar with Sandberg's plans, said the Recode report.

Sandberg is starting an organisation named OptionB.org to help people cope up with loss and hardship. She is also writing a book with the same name.

In January 2016, another report by Recode said that Sandberg had donated 29,000 Facebook shares worth $31 million to different charities.

Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 as COO. Prior to that, she was vice-president, online sales and operations at Google.

Last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave away 99% of his shares in the company, worth about $45 billion, for a philanthropic project.

Globally, several successful entrepreneurs have put their wealth into philanthropic initiatives.

India's Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro, has been ranked 4th in the report titled World's Top Philanthropists by wealth consultancy Wealth-X and Business Insider which was released last year. According to the report, Premji has donated $8 billion (nearly Rs 53,360 crore) to charity.

Zuckerberg was ranked 13th on the list with a donation of about $1.6 billion.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was ranked No. 1 on the list of top philanthropists, with lifetime donations of $27 billion as of October 2015. Chairman and CEO of holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett—who has given $21.5 billion in donations—came second. Buffett had committed to donate 85% of his personal wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Soros Fund Management founder George Soros and retail magnate Charles Francis Feeney were the other two featured in the top five.