• Elon Musk’s charity platform, the Musk Foundation, has come under scrutiny from The New York Times.
• The Times reported that half of the foundation’s donations had links to Musk or his businesses.
• Set up in 2002, the foundation’s website has a very plain-looking design that’s devoid of graphics.

Elon Musk may be best known for his entrepreneurial endeavors, but he also engages in philanthropy.

In 2002, the billionaire started his charity platform, the Musk Foundation, with his brother, Kimbal. In 2021, Musk donated $5.7 billion in Tesla shares to the foundation.

But its website appears sparse for an organization endowed with billions of dollars from Musk’s fortune.

The Musk Foundation’s website is essentially just a white webpage with seven lines of text, with no graphics or videos. The site only lists the various causes the foundation supports, including renewable energy, space exploration, and artificial intelligence.

Its plain design differentiates it from the slick webpages of other tech-billionaire-funded platforms, such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But the website’s simple graphic design doesn’t mean Musk isn’t sending funds through the foundation. Bloomberg reported in December 2022 that the Musk Foundation donated $160 million to nonprofits in 2021, including $55 million to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

On Sunday, however, The New York Times reported that about half of the Musk Foundation’s donations in 2021 and 2022 had links to Musk, his staff, or his businesses.

The Times also reported that the Musk Foundation regularly fell short of the minimum required donations under tax laws, citing tax filings it had obtained.

The report said the Musk Foundation was managed by Musk and two volunteers and didn’t have any staff on payroll.

Representatives for Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.