Google’s Larry Page gave $400 million in Christmas donations. Not a penny went straight to charity.

Vox (12/18/2019)
  • Since 2015, Google co-founder Larry Page has announced over $400 million in donations around Christmas time.
  • However, tax records reveal that 99.5% of these funds went to donor-advised funds (DAFs), not charities.
  • Loophole: The wealthy use DAFs to control and slowly disburse funds while meeting the annual 5% of assets legal threshold to be a registered US foundation.
  • Of the $180 million in announced 2017 “Christmas” donations by the Carl victor Page Memorial foundation, only $901,000 actually went to charity.