Craigslist founder pledges $100 million to boost U.S. cybersecurity

Half the money will go toward protecting infrastructure such as power grids from cyberattacks. The other half will go toward educating people about the importance of simple safeguards that are often ignored, such as using password managers and updating software.

“The country is under attack," said Newmark in an interview. He said those who are working to strengthen America’s cybersecurity “need people to champion them."

Newmark, who is 71 years old, retired from Craigslist in 2018. He worries that connected products like household appliances are vulnerable to attacks that could, for example, cause simultaneous fires, overwhelming a fire department’s ability to respond.

The commitment is part of Newmark’s plan to give away nearly all his wealth. Including the gift he plans to announce Wednesday at the Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington, D.C., Newmark will have given or pledged to give more than $400 million since he started Craig Newmark Philanthropies in 2015, largely to causes he views as protecting America. (He also donates to groups protecting pigeons, of which he is fond.)

Some recipients of the latest pledge have already been selected and notified, including a project affiliated with the University of Chicago’s public policy school to recruit, train and deploy cybersecurity volunteers to strengthen local infrastructure. Another is Common Sense Media, a child internet-safety group.

“It’s very much a David versus Goliath fight to work in the tech space when you’re advocating on behalf of kids; tech has all the money," said Danny Weiss, chief advocacy officer of Common Sense Media, which is receiving $2 million. “Craig’s helping to level the playing field a little bit."

Most of the latest pledge—$88 million—hasn’t yet been committed. Groups can apply for funding on the philanthropy’s website.

Newmark estimates his philanthropy gets about 10 to 20 proposals a week, which he vets himself. His only employees are a chief financial officer and a part-time media handler. Instead of requiring grantees to hit certain metrics, Newmark trusts the nonprofits he funds to use the money as they see fit.

Military families and veterans have been a major focus of his giving. So has journalism, notable because Craigslist was widely seen as contributing to the decline of advertising revenue for newspapers. (Newmark disputes that.)

He said his philanthropy was inspired by the concept of tikkun olam, Hebrew for “repairing the world," which he learned from his Sunday school teachers, who were Holocaust survivors.

“It stuck," said Newmark in a recent interview. “Another thing they taught me was, you should know when enough is enough."

Write to Juliet Chung at Juliet.Chung@wsj.com