Sep 25, 2010 09:33 GMT  ·  By

As rumored in the past days, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, announced his $100 million donation on the Oprah Winfrey Show yesterday.

Along with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker, he went on the show explaining the goal of his new foundation called Startup: Education which got started with the funding he provided.

In a blog post he detailed how he made the decision and what his donation hopes to achieve.

"I feel very fortunate for the opportunities I've been given because of my education, including the chance to work with talented people and build a great company at such a young age," he said.

"Rather than waiting until later in life to focus on giving back, I've spent a lot of the last year researching and looking for the most impactful ways to improve education starting in America," he explained.

The Startup: Education foundation will get $100 million worth of Facebook shares which will be sold in the secondary markets. The first project will focus on revamping the school system in Newark, one of the most under-performing areas in the US where half of the students never finish high school.

The money will be spent over five years and the mayor is providing another $100 million for the project.

"I believe in the Mayor and his vision, and that's why I want to help them succeed. Using my own Facebook stock, I'm creating the Startup: Education foundation with over $100 million to invest in educating and improving the lives of young people," he announced.

There are talks about the timing of the announcement. Zuckerberg made his donation known on the same day that The Social Network, a movie depicting the early days of Facebook, in heavily dramatized fashion, opened.

The movie portrays Zuckerberg as an egotistical and immature genius. However, it seems that the CEO initially wanted to make the donation anonymously. The timing of the announcement was also made to fit with Oprah's show schedule.