On Tuesday, Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter Inc, pledged $1 billion of his interest in Square Inc, the payment processor he co-founded and leads, to help finance relief efforts related to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a series of tweets, the iconoclastic multibillionaire said the sum would also go to his charitable organization, Start Small LLC, which will later concentrate on universal basic income and girls' health and education, representing around 28 percent of his fortune.

"Why now? Needs are becoming more urgent and I want to see the effect in my lifetime," said Dorsey. "I hope this encourages others to do something similar. Life is too short, so let's do everything we can to help people today," he added.

The initiative may be the biggest out of a single person for coronavirus relief and comes with the pandemic sweeping the globe and taking a heavy toll on life and economic devastation in the United States.

Dorsey has posted a Google Doc link to how the money will be used in a rare stroke of openness. Start Small's initial donation, the newly founded charitable organization from Dorsey, would leave $100,000 to America's Food Fund. The charity gives meals to people suffering from the spread of the virus.

Although many individuals have come to contribute to coronavirus relief efforts - both former Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon's Jeff Bezos have pledged $100 million - NBC reports Dorsey's $1 billion donation is the largest amount by an individual to date, given the fact that Gates and Bezos hold the first and second place on Forbes' billionaires list this year, while Dorsey is at far 804th.

After the coronavirus pandemic passes, Dorsey has already chosen a few charitable organizations, like America's Food Fund, and promised to transfer the fund to girls' health and education, as well as work into a universal basic income. Dorsey also invites people in need to give him their own funding requests, allowing grassroots donations.

Dorsey, who has kept specifics of his charitable activities secret for years, said all the contributions to and from the fund will now be available to the public in a public record at all times.

Dorsey, whose net worth is valued by Forbes at $3.3 billion, also said he was pledging his interest in Square rather than on Twitter because he holds a greater portion of the payment processor.

Dorsey, who is the top boss of both Square and Twitter, has built a foundation as well as the Start Small LLC - a model similar to that developed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in his Chan-Zuckerberg initiative, to allow a foundation flexibility in helping start-ups and efforts a charitable foundation may be ineligible to finance.