Internet entrepreneur Craig Newmark caught up with Spear’s to discuss his unintentional success and subsequent myriad ventures into philanthropy.
‘I was oblivious to how my moral compass was set up.
It was only when people started asking me about my philanthropy that I thought about the influences of Sunday school. Where it all really stems from is that my success was never intentional. I was just a programmer and, in 1995, I made an email list of local events for friends. Then people started responding with their own recommendations and it was pretty easy for me to write some code to turn those emails into webpages, and so Craigslist was born.
What I’d known from the beginning is that I just needed to make enough to live well and help my family. I’ve done much better than that and now the challenge is to give it away productively.
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A few years ago, I put all my Craigslist equity into a nonprofit foundation, which I’m calling the Septuagenarian Fund, because I made the decision shortly before my 70th birthday (I’m now 74). Through the foundation, I support several causes.
One involves helping veterans and military families. That passion began in high school when I saw soldiers return from the Vietnam War. I was politically naive at the time and, while I didn’t understand the issues, I knew that it wasn’t right to abuse soldiers like that. People sacrifice a great deal to defend the US, and their families give up a great deal too. Someone needs to step up to help them more, so I’ve committed $200 million to follow through on that.
I’m fighting against cybercrime and misinformation, and we’re starting to work with Wikipedia. The challenge is that Wikipedia is where facts live and that poses a threat to people who are uncomfortable with facts and evidence, so they’ve started to attack it. Wikipedia has the best immune system of any publication due to its community of editors. I need to work with them to train more editors and to give them public credit for the work they do, which benefits the entire species.
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I indulge my philanthropy in other ways, particularly through my love for birds. I support pigeon rescue organisations. Pigeons are smart, they’re survivors and they may replace us as a species if we’re not careful, so I should cultivate a relationship.
What it all comes down to is committing yourself to things that matter and where you can make a real difference. I signed The Giving Pledge in December 2025, and I’ve been getting a lot of feedback of all kinds. The problem is that a lot of people become very successful, especially in the dotcom world, and they should stand for something that helps people.
But I’m trying not to be judgemental about other billionaires as I get older. I’ve made a decision based on my values, and I’ve kept a significant amount of money to continue giving.
I’m aiming to give a billion dollars over 10 or 20 years. But I have to decide how the due diligence continues after I’m gone. I’ve decided I will either haunt people or I might create CraigGPT and, if so, CraigGPT can do my haunting for me.
Giving my money away is relatively easy for me because I’m a nerd so I don’t understand buying things for prestige or status. I have the attitudes and tastes of a peasant. My idea of luxury is a walk-in shower with a grab bar because I’m now an old man. I only became successful by accidentally being in the right place at the right time. That kind of makes me the Forrest Gump of the internet.”
This article first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 100. Click here to subscribe
