Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, donated half a billion dollars in stock to a charity in Silicon Valley. The 28 year old billionaire and his wife, Priscilla, donated their gift of approximately 18 million Facebook stock shares to help profit charities that deal with health and education issues. This marks one of the biggest charitable donations ever made in modern day history.

Emmet Carson, Silicon Valley Community Foundation's CEO, stated that Zuckerberg’s act of kindness and generosity will inspire many other people in Silicon Valley and hopefully around the globe in trying to make our world a better place. A spokesperson for the said foundation refused to make any further comments.

Zuckerberg made the announcement of his charitable donation via his Facebook page. The donation, which is worth approximately $498.8 millon is Zuckerberg’s largest donation to date. In 2010, Zuckerberg pledged about $100 million in Facebook stock to public schools in Newark, NJ. He would also go on to join the Giving Pledge, a group started by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

We can only hope that more influential people like Mark Zuckerberg will be able to use their wealth and celebrity status to help change the world for the better.