Jack Dorsey Joins BUILD’s National Board of Directors

Jack Dorsey is using his tech celebrity for good: he’s joined the Board of Directors for BUILD, the largest entrepreneurship-focused college access program.

Released on PRWeb this morning, the news of Dorsey’s philanthropic move shows that he’s not content to just head up Twitter and his payment business Square.

BUILD is dedicated to using entrepreneurship to encourage disenfranchised youth to excel in high school and propel them towards college. The group encourages students throughout their high school careers to develop their own business ideas, pitch to funders and launch actual businesses. What better person for the board than Dorsey, who not only launched Twitter, but more recently the payment service Square?

The founder and CEO of BUILD, Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, is excited about Dorsey joining the board:

“He has a passion to help disadvantaged youth and knows exactly how scary—yet exciting—it is for these youth entrepreneurs to launch their businesses. His strategic focus, which has led to success in so many industries, will be invaluable to BUILD for our next stage of growth.”

Interestingly, BUILD used Dorsey’s Square payment service to accecpt 99 donations randing from $10 to $12,000 during a recent fundraising gala.

Surprisingly, Dorsey isn’t the first Twitter co-founder to participate in an educational nonprofit. Just last week, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and TechNet’s President Rey Ramsey launched ConvergeUS, a US non-profit which leverages the tech industry for social change, with a focus on early childhood education.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.