Apple donates $500,000 to local anti-poverty charity SF Gives
Apple, alongside a handful of other tech companies, is reaching into its pockets for local San Francisco anti-poverty charity SF Gives. According to a report from Fortune, Apple is one of many companies that has donated $500,000 towards the total goal of $10 million that the organization is attempting to raise for local initiatives.
For the most part, signing up high-profile tech companies hasn’t presented a huge challenge thanks to Benioff and Lurie’s Silicon Valley connections. Still, while SF Gives is close to hitting the $10 million mark by its Wednesday deadline, 10 or so companies have declined to chip in. According to Lurie, their reasons vary. “For some, they feel like they’re doing their own thing: They’re giving back [already], and they’re involved,” he says. Other companies don’t generate revenue and feel it’s inappropriate to give away their investors’ money. “Then, there are others who just fundamentally believe that a company shouldn’t be doing philanthropy and that individuals should do it,” Lurie says.
The donation comes as Google and other big tech companies have been involved in controversies over their impact on the housing market and other aspects of smaller San Francisco neighbourhoods in recent months. There have been several cases of protestors blocking buses that shuttle Google employees to and from its headquarters and some even showing up at the homes of Google employees. Compare Apple’s relatively low donation of $500,000 to SF Gives— a fraction of one executive bonus— to the $6.8 million Google just gave to fund transit for low-income youth in the city following the controversies.
