Musk Foundation#Criticism

{{Elon Musk series|expanded=Personal}}

The Musk Foundation was established by Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk in December 2001. It was initially registered in Los Angeles.[https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/770587507/2003_11_PF%2F77-0587507_990PF_200206 Form 990-PF for period ending June 2002] ProRepublica{{Cite magazine |last=Insider |first=WIRED |title=Elon's empire: the sprawling, intertwining web of Elon Musk's vested interests |url=https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-empire/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |magazine=Wired |issn=1059-1028}} It is now based in Austin, the capital of Texas.{{Cite web |title=Musk Foundation |url=https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/musk-foundation,852133087/ |website=CauseIQ}} The foundation has no employees or full-time staff. It is managed by an unpaid board of directors consisting of Elon Musk and employees of his family office, Jared Birchall and Matilda Simon.{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-28 |author=David Fahrenthold, Ryan Mac |date=2024-03-20 |title=Elon Musk Has a Giant Charity. Its Money Stays Close to Home. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html |website=The New York Times}}

The foundation was initially endowed with $2 million.[https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/770587507/2003_11_PF%2F77-0587507_990PF_200306 Form 990-PF for period ending June 2003] Pro Republica From 2012 to 2015, it received a further $3 million. In 2016, Elon Musk donated Tesla shares worth $254 million to the foundation, thus avoiding tax payments that would have been due if he had sold the shares.{{Cite web |last=Millard |first=Drew |title=Why did Elon Musk stash a quarter-billion dollars of Tesla stock in a non-profit back in 2016? |url=https://theoutline.com/post/5707/elon-musk-has-a-quarter-billion-dollars-of-tesla-shares-parked-in-a-non-profit |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=The Outline}} In 2020, the foundation received another $4 million.[https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/770587507 Musk Foundation]. Pro Publica, retrieved 18 February 2024. Due to the increase in the price of Tesla shares, the foundation's assets rose to $3 billion by the end of 2020.{{Cite web |title=2020 Form 990 for Musk Foundation {{!}} Cause IQ |url=https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/view_990/852133087/36542aab2aca90139556f6829e1e356b |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=www.causeiq.com}}

In 2021, Musk donated more Tesla shares to the Musk Foundation, worth $5.7 billion at the time. According to estimates, he may have avoided up to $2 billion in taxes that would have been incurred if he had sold the shares. Musk also donated Tesla shares in 2022, this time worth $1.95 billion. It is not yet known whether and to what extent these went to the Musk Foundation (as of February 2024).{{Cite news |title=Musk donated around $1.95 billion in Tesla shares last year |url=https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/musk-donated-around-195-billion-tesla-shares-last-year-2023-02-15/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Reuters}}

From 2002 to 2018, the foundation gave $25 million directly to nonprofit organizations, nearly half of which went to Musk's OpenAI,{{cite news |last=Schleifer |first=Theodore |date=January 11, 2021 |title=The big decision before Elon Musk, now the richest person in the world |url=https://www.vox.com/recode/22221173/elon-musk-tesla-foundation-philanthropy-wealthiest-person |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217230456/https://www.vox.com/recode/22221173/elon-musk-tesla-foundation-philanthropy-wealthiest-person |archive-date=February 17, 2021 |access-date=February 17, 2021 |work=Vox}} which was a nonprofit at the time.{{cite web |date=March 11, 2019 |title=OpenAI shifts from nonprofit to 'capped-profit' to attract capital |url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/openai-shifts-from-nonprofit-to-capped-profit-to-attract-capital/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425163152/https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/openai-shifts-from-nonprofit-to-capped-profit-to-attract-capital/ |archive-date=April 25, 2021 |access-date=April 25, 2021}} By 2020, the foundation had granted around 350 donations with a total volume of an estimated $100 million, including for Musk's non-profit organizations Ad Astra and OpenAI. Other donations went to the University of Pennsylvania, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, the AI think tank Future of Life Institute, the X-Prize Foundation for the Global Learning X-Prize, the nature conservation organizations Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation, Oxfam and the Clinton Foundation.{{Cite web |last=Calayag |first=Keith |date=2022-02-17 |title=Elon Musk Won't Leave All His Billions To His Kids: Here's Why |url=https://www.ibtimes.com/elon-musk-wont-leave-all-his-billions-his-kids-heres-why-3403784 |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=International Business Times}}{{Cite web |title=Elon Musk's Philanthropy Is Still Big Philanthropy |url=https://capitalresearch.org/article/29915/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=capitalresearch.org}}{{cite web|access-date=2024-03-28 |author=Allison Morrow |date=2024-03-12 |title=Musk's haphazard philanthropy is under scrutiny |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/12/business/musks-haphazard-philanthropy-is-under-scrutiny/index.html |website=CNN Business}} Other beneficiaries included his brother Kimbal's nonprofit Big Green.{{cite news |last=Cuccinello |first=Hayley C. |date=September 8, 2020 |title=Elon Musk Has Promised To Give at Least Half His Fortune To Charity. Here's How Much He's Donated So Far |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2020/09/08/elon-musk-has-promised-to-give-at-least-half-his-fortune-to-charity-heres-how-much-hes-donated-so-far/?sh=606951e73c8c |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213235544/https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2020/09/08/elon-musk-has-promised-to-give-at-least-half-his-fortune-to-charity-heres-how-much-hes-donated-so-far/?sh=606951e73c8c |archive-date=December 13, 2020 |access-date=December 13, 2020 |work=Forbes}} Elon Musk's favorite event – the Burning Man Festival in Nevada – was also donated to. Most of these donations were anonymized.{{Cite web |last=Cuccinello |first=Hayley C. |title=Elon Musk Has Promised To Give At Least Half His Fortune To Charity. Here's How Much He's Donated So Far |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2020/09/08/elon-musk-has-promised-to-give-at-least-half-his-fortune-to-charity-heres-how-much-hes-donated-so-far/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Forbes}}

In 2020, Musk donated $60,000 to the Ad Astra Schoolhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2022/02/15/elon-musk-reports-donating-57-billion-to-charity-but-there-is-no-trace-of-that-gift-yet/ (founded in 2014) in Hawthorne, CA where 5 of the 14 original students were his children. The school closed in 2020 after Musk's children graduated and went online,https://www.edweek.org/leadership/elon-musk-is-opening-a-school-for-young-students-heres-what-we-know-about-it/2024/11 but has re-opened as the Astra Nova School in Bastrop, TX near SpaceX's headquarters.https://www.edweek.org/leadership/elon-musk-is-opening-a-school-for-young-students-heres-what-we-know-about-it/2024/11 Another $25,000 went to the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, attended by his daughter, and $25,000 to the Windward School, attended by one of his sons.

In September 2021, the Musk Foundation donated $55 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as part of a fundraiser by SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman. {{cite web|access-date=2023-11-06 |author=Michael Sheetz |title=Stories from orbit: Q&A with SpaceX Inspiration4 commander Jared Isaacman |website=CNBC |date=12 October 2021 |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/12/spacex-inspiration4-commander-jared-isaacman-qa.html}} In the same year, it provided $100 million for technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.{{Cite news |last1=Neate |first1=Rupert |date=2021-02-08 |title=Elon Musk pledges $100m to carbon capture contest |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/08/elon-musk-pledges-100m-to-carbon-capture-contest |access-date=2024-12-09 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}

In 2022, the foundation awarded – as in the previous year{{Cite news |date=2022-12-12 |title=Musk's $5.7 Billion Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-12/elon-musk-s-5-7-billion-mystery-gift-went-to-his-own-charity |access-date=2024-12-09 |work=Bloomberg.com}} – a total of $160 million in donation. 10 million of this went to The Foundation, a new foundation set up by Elon Musk, which is preparing to establish a school in Austin. The Foundation received a further $100 million in 2023.{{Cite web |last=Hull,Bloomberg |first=Sophie Alexander,Dana |title=Elon Musk wants to create new schools in Austin—from elementary to university—that he's funding with a $100 million gift |url=https://fortune.com/2023/12/13/elon-musk-donation-new-university-austin/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Fortune}}{{Cite web |last=Kay |first=Grace |title=Elon Musk plans to launch his own university in Texas, report says |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-new-university-texas-report-2023-12 |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Business Insider}}

Both the selection of recipients of donations and a relatively low payout ratio have been criticized. In 2021 and 2022, the Musk Foundation awarded less than 5% of its assets in donations, after its assets grew to several billion dollars. This means that it fell short of the legal minimum donation required to maintain its tax-exempt status. The Guardian criticized the fact that the foundation financed various projects of Musk and his family members, although this is not unusual for billionaires and wealthy donors. The New York Times concluded that through 2022, about half of the Musk Foundation's grants went to organizations "tied" to Musk, one of his employees, or one of his companies. Musk's philanthropy would be "largely self-serving." In one instance, after Musk challenged World Food Programme director David Beasley to draft a plan to use money of Musk's that Beasley said could contribute to ending world hunger, Musk instead donated the $6 billion in question to his own foundation even after Beasley's plan showed that the money could feed 42 million people for a year.{{Cite web |last=Zhang |first=Sharon |date=2022-12-13 |title=Musk Pledged $6B to Solve World Hunger But Gave It to His Own Foundation Instead |url=https://truthout.org/articles/musk-pledged-6b-to-solve-world-hunger-but-gave-it-to-his-own-foundation-instead/ |access-date=2025-02-21 |website=Truthout}}

According to the biographer Walter Isaacson, Musk has little interest in philanthropy. He believes that he can do more for humanity by leaving his money in his companies and pursuing the goals of sustainable energy, space exploration and AI safety with them.{{Cite book |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUGvEAAAQBAJ |title=Elon Musk |date=2023-09-12 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-9821-8130-7 |pages=439}}

On December 12, 2024, The New York Times reported the foundation again awarded less than 5% of its assets in donations in 2024.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/musk-foundation-taxes-donations.html |title=Musk's Foundation Gave Away Less Money Than Required in 2023|work=The New York Times|date=December 12, 2024 |last1=Fahrenthold |first1=David A. |last2=Schleifer |first2=Theodore }}{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-13/musk-s-foundation-sent-most-of-its-millions-to-his-own-entities |title=Elon Musk's Charitable Foundation Sent Most of Its Millions to His Own Entities|work=Bloomberg |publisher=Bloomberg}}

• List of wealthiest charitable foundations
• RBG PAC
• America PAC

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.muskfoundation.org/ Musk Foundation]
• [https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/musk-foundation,852133087/ Musk Foundation] at Cause IQ
• [https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/770587507 Musk Foundation] at ProPublica

Category:2001 establishments in California

Category:Organizations based in Los Angeles

Category:Organizations based in Austin, Texas

Category:Elon Musk

Category:Foundations based in the United States