Apple donates $500,000 to help fight poverty in San Francisco

By Derek Kessler
last updated

Apple has donated half a million dollars to a San Francisco anti-poverty initiative. The donation, as reported by Fortune, to the SF Gives charity, joins similar donations from other leading Silicon Valley firms like Google and LinkedIn. Apple, like late co-founder Steve Jobs, has been famously quiet about their charitable donations, though they've been opening up under current CEO Tim Cook.

Unlike (Product) Red's global ambitions, SF Gives is much more focused on the San Francisco region, and is aiming to raise $10 million through contributions from 20 local businesses of just $500,000 each — a drop in the bucket for the likes of Apple.

The arrival of an initiative like SF Gives comes at a precarious time for Silicon Valley. Critics of the thriving tech industry have blamed companies for a meteoric rise in rents and increased evictions. In recent months, protesters have blocked Google's employee commuter buses, held a rally at the annual Crunchies tech awards gala, and stood outside the San Francisco home of Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose, distributing flyers and holding signs maligning Rose as a "parasite" and "leech." Many people also complain about the tech industry's limited track record in philanthropy, despite the huge profits generated by some of its biggest names.

Apple's charitable givings have been become more public recently, though they still tend to play their cards close to their vest — Fortune had to cite "sources close to the matter". In 2011, Apple launched a charitable donations matching program for their employees, as well as donating more than $70 million to AID research through (Product) Red.

Source: Fortune

Derek Kessler
Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.

9 Comments
  • $500,000? Wow! That is so gracious of this trillion dollar company?!
  • That's $500,000 the homeless organizations didn't have before though. Sent from the iMore App
  • "SF Gives is much more focused on the San Francisco region, and is aiming to raise $10 million through contributions from 20 local businesses of just $500,000 each" Sounds like Apple was only asked for half a million.
  • +1 Read the article before commenting. Brought to you by the Nexus M8
  • Should have made it a few millions.. Half a million is nice but won't help much in the long run and that's like Apple giving away 5 dollars for them. Shouldn't be negative, any charity is good in the end Posted via the Android iMore App!
  • .....read the article, and you'll figure out why its only half a million... Common sense folks. Brought to you by the Nexus M8
  • Well, that's 500 grand wasted. Come back after this money has been "put to use" and there will be just as much poverty in SF as before they started. Here's a shocker: when people are paid not to work, they won't. Apple's money might be put to a good use but it will disappear because there are far too many other programs working against it. If you want to do some good, spend the money FIRST on getting rid of everything that incentivizes people not to work and THEN pour money into the things that they do once they start working.
  • The $500,000 Apple spent on this initiative will much farther than if the government donated 100 times as much. Sent from the iMore App
  • 500K is nothing compared with other corporations have given in the past...