Elon Musk $5 million donation to Khan Academy thank you

Hi everyone, Sal Khan here from Khan Academy, and I just wanted to give a huge shout out and thank you to Elon Musk and everyone at the Musk Foundation for their incredibly generous support for Khan Academy.

They just recently gave a 5 million dollar donation to Khan Academy. Elon, I hope you really feel good about this. This is going to allow us to accelerate all sorts of content. Our aspirations are all subjects from K through the early stages of college. This will accelerate our science content, allow us to do more on early learning, and allow us to make the software and the practice that much more engaging for millions of students around the world, for teachers around the world.

As far as Khan Academy has come, we have 120 million registered users, 20 or 30 million students using the platform every month. We have about 200 million hours of learning a year, which any way you want to evaluate that, that's worth a lot to the world. When you look at our efficacy studies and how we've been able to move the dial in classrooms, our social return to investment ratio is 400 to 500 to 1. A good return in the philanthropic sector is considered a five to one ratio or ten to one ratio.

So, as much as progress has been made, I think you appreciate—and hopefully everyone watching appreciates—that there are many billions who need this. There are people throughout the planet who need a way to tap into their potential. I view this type of investment in what we're doing as really foundational for us to be able to build a multi-generational institution so that future Elons of the world are also able to tap into their potential and help all of us up level who we are as a civilization.

For everyone listening, I want to remind folks that as incredible as this donation is—and it really is incredible—that we do need more help. We continue to be running at a deficit for 2021, so every donation of every size helps. We're able to take every one of those dollars, and it helps us accelerate learning in a whole bunch of dimensions. The world as a whole spends five trillion dollars on education annually; Khan Academy's budget is one one-hundred-thousandth of that. We are the budget of a large high school, but our aspirations are to serve the globe.

So hopefully, we more folks listening at all scales can help support what we're trying to do. And the last thing I'll mention—and you know it's especially powerful to get a donation from you, Elon—I had the privilege of interviewing you back in 2013 when you visited our office. Someone on YouTube commented, "I want to find someone who looks at me the same way that Sal looks at Elon," and they were catching on to something. I do look up to you in an incredible way.

Any time that I question even myself and I say, "Is this mission too big to actually try to educate all of humanity?" I think of the incredible work that you've done. I remember back in 2013 when I interviewed you; pretty much everything you said you were going to do and you made some pretty large statements, you have either done or you are very close to doing right now. I take incredible inspiration that it is not too big of a mission; that if anything, we cannot shy away right now from this goal, just as we shouldn't shy away from solving climate, solving transportation, being able to colonize other planets.

We can't shy away from educating the planet and other planets going forward. So thank you so much, and I look forward to going on this journey with all of y'all.