Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is donating almost $500 million in shares of the world’s largest social network to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The gift to the nonprofit group, which had $2 billion in assets in 2011, is to “lay a foundation for new projects,” Zuckerberg said Tuesday in a statement posted on his Facebook page.

This is Zuckerberg’s largest donation to date. He pledged $100 million in Facebook stock to Newark, N.J., public schools in 2010, before his company went public earlier this year. Later in 2010, he joined Giving Pledge, an effort led by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett to get the country’s richest people to donate most of their wealth. His wife, Priscilla Chan, joined with him.

Zuckerberg, 28, said he’s “proud of the work” done by the foundation that his Newark donation launched, called Startup: Education, which has helped open charter schools, high schools and others.

With the latest contribution, he added, “we will look for areas in education and health to focus on next.” He did not give further details on what plans there may be for funds.

The executive and his wife, Priscilla, signed a pledge two years ago committing the majority of their earnings to charity. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation provides grants for local needs and brings together “diverse groups of problem- solvers” to address them. It also manages corporate and individual charitable funds.

“Mark’s generous gift will change lives and inspire others in Silicon Valley and around the globe to give back and make the world a better place,” Emmett Carson, CEO of the foundation, said  in an e-mailed statement. “We are pleased and honored that he has chosen to continue to partner with us to help him achieve his philanthropic goals.”

The couple’s first gift focused on education reform in Newark, New Jersey, with a group called Startup: Education. The $100 million donation went toward signing a new teachers contract, opening four new district high schools and 11 new charter schools, Zuckerberg has said.

“Together, we will look for areas in education and health to focus on next,” he said.

Zuckerberg’s fortune is valued at $14.1 billion, making him the 59th richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) rose 3.6 percent to $27.71 Tuesday in New York trading. The company has fallen 27 percent since its initial public offering in May.

Alexandra Hollander, a spokeswoman for Menlo Park, California-based Facebook, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on why Zuckerberg chose the charity.

(The AP and Bloomberg contributed to this report.)