Last time we heard about Mr. Dorsey, we were talking politics – this time, it’s about changing the world. Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, recently announced he would put $1 billion of equity from his other company, Square, to build a new foundation he is launching that will support coronavirus relief efforts as well other medical, social and environmental causes.
In his post on Twitter, the billionaire CEO wrote that the Start Small Foundation would support “global COVID-19 relief” efforts before transitioning after the pandemic’s resolution to supporting universal basic income (UBI) experiments as well as health and education efforts aimed at young women.
I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz
— jack (@jack) April 7, 2020
“After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girls health and education, and UBI,” Dorsey wrote. “Why UBI and girls health and education? I believe they represent the best long-term solutions to the existential problems facing the world. UBI is a great idea needing experimentation. Girls health and education is critical to balance,” he added.
Universal basic income has drawn national attention this year as the central tenet of entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s now-suspended presidential campaign. The former Democratic contender thanked Dorsey on social media for the inclusion of UBI in the new foundation.
This story is developing – check back for updates.
