Apple begins matching employee charity donations

Apple has begun a new charitable matching program for employees today that will see the Cupertino company match charity donations made by its staff up to the tune of $10,000 per year.

The program is currently exclusive to full-time employees in the U.S. only, however, according to MacRumors, Apple has plans to roll it out to other countries in future. The company’s new CEO, Tim Cook, announced the initiative to employees today via email:

Team:

I am very happy to announce that we are kicking off a matching gift program for charitable donations. We are all really inspired by the generosity of our co-workers who give back to the community and this program is going to help that individual giving go even farther.

Starting September 15, when you give money to a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Apple will match your gift dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000 annually. This program will be for full-time employees in the US at first, and we’ll expand it to other parts of the world over time.

Thank you all for working so hard to make a difference, both here at Apple and in the lives of others. I am incredibly proud to be part of this team.

If you’d like more information on the program, you can get it on HRWeb, which can be easily accessed through AppleWeb.

Tim

Apple, and its previous CEO, Steve Jobs, have previously received criticism for not donating more of their billions to charity. However, as MacRumors notes, it seems the company’s previous charity work is quickly forgotten:

“Steve Jobs’ lack of a public record of philanthropy was highlighted just last week, with U2 singer Bono coming to Jobs’ defense and noting that Apple has contributed “tens of millions of dollars” to the (Product)RED campaign against AIDS.”