The world was abuzz earlier this month when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would donate 99 percent of his company shares to charitable causes over his lifetime. The announcement drew criticism about how the donation (currently worth $45 billion) would be apportioned, and for some it brought to light a bigger question about how tech giants decide to give back.

Billionaire tech philanthropy is nothing new. In October, when Square filed its initial public offering, CEO Jack Dorsey (of Twitter fame) announced that he would give 40 million of his shares, the equivalent of 10 percent of the entire company, to help underserved communities and “drive positive impact.”

And last month Bill Gates drew headlines when he announced that he would join more than 20 other billionaires – including Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and Marc Benioff of Salesforce – to launch a coalition that invests in clean energy projects around the globe.

Throwing money at causes doesn’t solve problems, but it certainly helps. It takes a lot more than dollar signs, though, to create lasting impact and be a truly responsible corporate citizen (tech or not).