I don’t understand a few things specifically (and have questions about other info that might just not be available). What does it mean for the money to be put in a trust? Does that become available cash for the nonprofit? Does his personal net worth decrease by $3 billion? How much will the CEO or highest up now earn per year?
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It isn’t money (directly) put into the trust, it is the shares representing the controlling ownership of the company. Kind of like setting up a trust and putting a property into the trust. The trust now owns that property.
No, it is not directly available as cash unless the trust sells the share (which they are probably not allowed to do – depends on how the trust is set up). However, if the company (Patagonia) pays out dividends as cash to shareholders, that cash is available to the trust.
Yes, the person putting the property into a trust no longer owns that property and their net wealth is reduced accordingly.
There is no immediate or direct change to the compensation of the people that work for the company simply due to the transfer of the shares. Employees earn their salaries from the company, not the trust. The trust is a separate entity altogether. Although the trustees (as the controlling shareholder) will have a big say on the future compensation of the CEO through the Board of Directors.
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