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Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive of merchant processor and business-software provider Square Inc., on Tuesday pledged $1 billion for Covid-19 relief, and Mastercard Inc. committed $250 million over five years to help small businesses hit hard by the economic slowdown caused by the highly infectious disease.
Those two announcements follow Monday’s announcement by the Visa Foundation created by Visa Inc. to commit $210 million for Covid-19 relief, most of which will be directed toward small businesses.
Dorsey’s announcement came in the form of several tweets—he’s also the co-founder and CEO of Twitter Inc.—and represents the biggest Covid-19 pandemic-related donation yet, Bloomberg reported. Dorsey is pledging $1 billion of his equity in Square, which he says is 28% of his wealth, to his charity, Start Small LLC. Distributions from the donor-advised fund can be tracked publicly. The one distribution listed so far says $100,000 has gone to America’s Food Fund to pay for meals for people affected by Covid-19.
“After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI [universal basic income],” Dorsey said in one of the tweets.
Meanwhile, Mastercard, which announced its $250 million program at a White House event Tuesday, said the money will be directed to small businesses in the U.S. and abroad. Much of it will come in the form of free security and data services, including no-fee vulnerability assessments and identity-theft protection for the 28 million small businesses eligible for loans under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, a major part of the $2 trillion Covid-19 relief bill Congress passed last month.
Mastercard also is making its Local Market Intelligence service available to small businesses for three months at no charge.
