Jack Dorsey

SOURCE of WEALTH: Twitter, Square 

FUNDING AREAS: Entrepreneurship, education, global development, racial equity, humanitarian, economic justice, girl’s health, technology

OVERVIEW: Dorsey’s philanthropy has really picked up over the last few years, and since 2020, he has given away large sums of money at a rapid rate. Most significantly, he pledged $1 billion of his shares in Square toward relief from the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the months since his announcement the value of these shares has more than tripled. Dorsey conducts his grantmaking through the Start Small Foundation, a charity he created in 2015, also with shares from Square. He frequently pools his donations with those of celebrities, including Rihanna and Jay-Z.

BACKGROUND: Dorsey grew up in St. Louis, and took an early interest in computer programming. He attended the Missouri University of Science & Technology before transferring to NYU, where he came up with the idea that eventually became Twitter. After moving to Oakland, he worked on software to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services from the web. He approached a company called Odeo with the idea of a simple status sharing platform—leading to creation of Twitter. He served as executive chair of Twitter, Inc. until shortly before its sale to Elon Musk; Dorsey’s other company, Square, has an equally large impact on his fortune.

ISSUES:

HUMANITARIAN: In April 2020, Dorsey pledged $1 billion of his shares in Square, more than 25% of his total net worth, toward relief efforts for Covid-19. Dorsey has given Resolve to Save Lives, the global health organization founded by former CDC Director Tom Frieden, $88 million since 2020. He has also given at least $8 million to groups responding to the destruction caused by the wildfires in Maui in 2023, including $1 million each to the Maui Food Bank, Hawai’i People’s Fund, Hawai’i Community Fund, and Maui Humane Society.

SOCIAL JUSTICE: Dorsey has also given millions to social justice organizations in partnership with Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation, including $1 million to the NAACP for its policing reform campaign and its voting rights initiative, $1.5 million to Black Visions Collective for dismantling systems of oppression and violence, and $750,000 to ArchCity Defender to combat the criminalization of poverty and state violence, especially in communities of color. He has given over $53 million to Clara Lionel since 2020, including a gift of $12.5 million early in 2023.

Dorsey has also supported the Florida Rights and Restoration Coalition to restore the right to vote by paying off the fines and fees of over 100,000 returning citizens, and $7.6 million to Fuse Corps to advance racial, social, and economic justice. He gave $10 million to Boston University’s AntiRacism Center, founded by Dr. Ibram X. Kendhi. He has also given $1 million to The Marshall Project, which seeks to raise awareness about criminal justice reform.

Start Small has also given $1 million to B-360’s #Ride4Change campaign, which seeks to use Baltimore’s dirt bike culture to disrupt the cycle of poverty. Dorsey has also given $14 million to REFORM Alliance, the criminal justice organization, since 2020 and $6.5 million to Jay-Z’s foundations.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: Dorsey has given $3 million to Know Your Rights Camp which seeks to advance the well-being of Black and Brown communities through “education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.” He has also given at least $18 million toward a pilot program for guaranteed basic income by the organization Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), and another $15 million to Open Research Lab Income Project, also for UBI research, although Dorsey’s interest in UBI appears to have waned since.

WOMEN AND GIRLS: Dorsey has supported Dream Big!, which partners with schools and community groups to support the needs of girls and young women from disadvantaged groups. He has also given to Girls Embracing Mothers, Society of Women Engineers, Girls Up Initiative Uganda, CorStone, and Eastern Congo Initiative, which supports women entrepreneurs in the region. UCSF Sports Medicine Center for Women and Girls received over $2.5 million in 2023.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT: Dorsey is a supporter of charity: water, and in 2010 visited villages in Ethiopia that received a well sponsored by Dorsey and his Twitter followers.  In February 2021, Dorsey pledged $4.7 million to Water.org to help Africans living in poverty access small, affordable loans to solve home water and sanitation challenges. He also pledged $3 million for girls’ education in sub-Saharan Africa through AGE Africa, Asante Africa Foundation, WISER International, and Women’s Global Education Project. In 2023, he gave $2 million to OutRight Action International, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ people around the world.

TECHNOLOGY: Dorsey has given significantly to organizations working in the tech space, as well as crypto groups, including Graphene OS, the Tor Project, and the Open Sats Initiative, which received $10 million in May 2023.

LOOKING FORWARD: Dorsey’s philanthropy has focused less on movement building in recent years and has taken a more traditional approach to grantmaking. It tends to support many of the same organizations annually. Look for Dorsey and Start Small’s focus to remain on girl’s health and education humanitarian causes, and social justice. It is also likely that Dorsey will continue to support tech and crypto groups, as these have seen significant funding in recent years as well.

CONTACT: Twitter: @jack