Here’s what you saw: In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Oprah to announce that he was donating $100 million to Newark’s troubled school system.

What you didn’t see were the behind-the-scenes machinations that come with such a huge gift. Some of those dealings and the spin involved have just come to light. For example, although the donation came from Zuckerberg personally, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was hyper-involved at every level, right down to press release language and choreographing the participation of other big names. Zuckerberg authors only one email to the group, which is included in 96 pages of discussion leading up to the donation that the City of Newark released on Christmas Eve (when nobody was likely to notice).





Newark had refused to release these emails for two years, claiming executive privilege, until a lawsuit from a local parents group and the ACLU forced them to comply with the state’s public records laws. (You can read the originals here, thanks to the Newark Star-Ledger.) In the emails, the planning team talks candidly about trying to make the donation look participatory, getting big names and big round numbers involved, and making sure the billionaires look “modest” and feel “special.”

“URGENT: Having the ability for citizens put in funds to help match Mark’s money is fantastic….Can this get done?” –Sheryl Sandberg, 9/19/2010

Sandberg and the Facebook team wanted individuals to be able to contribute to the Newark schools fund $5 or $10 at a time. With the clock ticking, they discuss possible technical solutions to the logistics of accepting small donations using innovative platforms such as Square, DonorsChoose.org, PayPal, Sean Parker’s Causes, Google, and Kiva. One conference call was scheduled for 10:30 p.m.

“They believe it’s bad positioning for Mark if only higher end donors are able to contribute to the matching funds in large chunks.” -Sarah Ross, 9/18/2010

Sarah Ross, director of new media at Ashton Kutcher’s company Katalyst, helped out the Newark team with the crowdfunding piece, getting Jack Dorsey and a team of engineers to crash a “real time fundraising” solution involving Square and Amazon Payments. Ultimately, however, the pieces didn’t come together in time to collect significant small donations.

The team next turned to attracting other high-profile donors, such as Oprah, Warren Buffet, Pershing Square investor Bill Ackman, Eli Broad, and Bill Gates to the cause.

“The plan is to have a one on one with Bill [Gates] so he feels special…” -Bari Mattes, 9/22/2010

Leading up to a potential Gates contribution came the intricate choreography of a fundraising meeting between Gates and Zuckerberg, the subject of this email between Mattes, one of Newark mayor Cory Booker’s fundraising advisers, and Facebook’s Sandberg.