Mark Zuckerberg: Spreading The Wealth

Like so many of the world's most well-known billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg has taken the first step in becoming a grand-scale philanthropist.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Zuckerberg has signed onto the Giving Pledge, which asks its signatories to commit publicly to give away the majority of their wealth.

More than 50 billionaires have signed the pledge, including AOL (NYSE: AOL) co-founder Steve Case, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) founder Larry Ellison, Star Wars creator George Lucas, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Other recent pledges include Carl Icahn and Michael Milken.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the two men behind the Giving Pledge. The respective Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) founders created the pledge in an effort to persuade the rich to boost their giving.

Michael Milken said that he views this pledge as a call to others who might, in their 30s or 40s, “use some of their creativity to get involved in philanthropy earlier in life.”

Mr. Zuckerberg concurs, saying, "There's so much that needs to be done, it would be better to start now."

But even if you don't have billions to give away, Steve Case believes that people can still make a difference. "It is less about what size of a check that you write and more about the outcome," he said.