Until not too long ago, Elon Musk was listed as the wealthiest particular person on the earth. As many rich people do, Musk has arrange a tax shelter “foundation” to supervise the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s charitable giving. There’s only one drawback, he’s probably not doing any giving. The basis, regardless of controlling over $7 billion in property, has no staff, and largely offers to causes with direct hyperlinks to Mr. Musk. According to reporting from the New York Times, the muse gave simply $160 million in assist in 2022, which was $234 million lower than it was legally required to provide. 2023 information haven’t been made public but.
The Musk Foundation’s large endowment, largely given by Elon within the type of shares, makes it the twenty eighth largest charitable basis on the earth, simply behind the W.Ok. Kellogg Foundation Trust, which paid for the elementary faculty I attended. It’s a much bigger basis than the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Those foundations rent grants managers, funding officers, and managing administrators of applications, however Elon Musk is the one listed worker of the muse, serving on the board alongside a pair of volunteers. NYT says a type of volunteers is placing in simply six minutes of labor per week on basis actions. Three individuals to handle a $7 billion charitable fund? Something sounds fishy right here.
More from NYT:
Among the donations the Musk Foundation has made, there was $55 million to assist a significant SpaceX buyer meet a charitable pledge. There have been the thousands and thousands that went to Cameron County, Texas, after the rocket blew up. And there have been donations to 2 colleges intently tied to his companies: one walled off inside a SpaceX compound, the opposite situated subsequent to a brand new subdivision for Musk’s staff.
The basis’s web site, which lists no contact info and doesn’t permit purposes for grants, claims it’s fascinated about “science education, pediatric health and clean energy.” The basis’s items, in the meantime, appear to be haphazard and with out focus. The basis has helped teams tied to him personally, together with a meals charity run by Kimball Musk. Elon did discovered a non-profit faculty with Musk Foundation funds. The faculty, a math and science-focused faculty was housed in Musk’s Bel-Air dwelling, taught fourteen college students in 2014, 5 of them Musk’s personal kids.
The Musk Foundation additionally gave $5 million to a UN program to offer web entry to rural colleges. SpaceX gained no less than two national-level contracts to offer StarLink web in consequence. Pennsylvania billionaire Jared Isaacman chartered a SpaceX journey to orbit, claiming the flight would “increase $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. When he landed and was nonetheless wanting the determine, The Musk Foundation pitched in $55 million. Isaacman later dedicated to paying for 3 further SpaceX flights.
As with all the things Musk does, the charitable donations not associated to creating him more cash have motivations that appear to be largely clout-based. Again, from NYT:
But Mr. Musk’s giving typically appeared guided by Twitter, the place he made splashy guarantees in response to challenges from web celebrities: He gave $1 million to plant timber after prompting from the YouTuber Mr. Beast and $1 million to assist small companies through the Covid-19 pandemic after a push from Dave Portnoy, the founding father of Barstool Sports.
Remember when Elon promised to scrub up the water in Flint, Michigan?
The City of Flint despatched Musk a four-page letter asking for funding to replace the water supply infrastructure, and start changing getting older pipes. The metropolis additionally begged Musk to increase his enterprise operations to Flint in an effort to offer jobs for its residents. The Musk Foundation donated $1 million to group colleges to pay for water filters and purchase laptops for college kids. An further $125,000 was given to a youth-organized charity which despatched backpacks filled with provides to Flint college students. The Musk Foundation has not listed a present associated to the Flint water efforts since 2019.
By giving $5.7 billion price of Tesla shares to The Musk Foundation in 2021, Elon Musk saved himself no less than a pair billion {dollars} on his personal private tax invoice that yr. Being that it’s just about simply him on the board of the muse, this tiny hit to his private wealth didn’t include any related dilution of his possession of the corporate. The Musk Foundation votes with Elon, as a result of The Musk Foundation is Elon. Instead of utilizing this tax burden discount loophole to truly assist the world, he gamed the system to assist himself, and The Musk Foundation isn’t even assembly the minimal obligations of a basis, and significantly not of a basis of its dimension.
Tax legislation requires foundations to provide away 5 p.c of their property annually, that means The Musk Foundation wants to provide away a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} yearly. In 2021 the muse was wanting the minimal by $41 million, and an additional $193 million in 2022. I’d guess that $234 million shortfall would have gone a good distance towards fixing Flint’s water.
Source: jalopnik.com