Facebook’s boss #MarkZuckerberg has pledged to give away most of his #Facebook fortune

Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Chan, who are 31 and 30, respectively, bring a touch of youth to what has been an elderly tradition of giving to charity. Warren Buffett made a similarly large pledge in 2006, when he was 75. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, started his foundation with his wife in 2000, when he was 45. Seeing young tech titans involve themselves in philanthropy earlier could inspire other wealthy youngsters to donate to good causes before they grey.Successful tech entrepreneurs, who have made fortunes designing solutions to change the status quo, bring a more critical eye to philanthropy. “I see them doing their own independent research and thinking about how they can change the world. They are not looking at mimicking someone else,” says Ron Conway, an investor and philanthropist in Silicon Valley. They also prefer to focus on solving global problems, like improving health care, instead of supporting the arts. Few in the tech community write big cheques to the ballet, opera or symphony. As these tech entrepreneurs replace a previous generation of donors, local arts groups in the San Francisco Bay Area may struggle. Last year the San Jose Repertory Theatre, a 34-year old theatre group in Silicon Valley, filed for bankruptcy after it was unable to raise enough in donations.

Onlookers will closely watch how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative spends its money. Their initial letter said their efforts would initially focus on personalised learning, medical research and two causes that sound suspiciously “on brand” for Facebook: “connecting people and building strong communities”. Their foundation is structured as a limited liability company instead of a not-for-profit, which means it will be able to lobby and spend on political causes. Because Mr Zuckerberg has made his vast fortune by creating one of the most valuable and in-depth repositories of people’s personal information online, people should be sensitive to his charity lobbying for regulations and promoting policies that advance his firm’s interests. But more immediately this gift is an act of good. Having already helped change the way people interact with the world once, Mr Zuckerberg wants to do so again.