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Tim Cook's Charity Lunch Auction Raises More Than $500,000 for RFK Center

Thursday May 5, 2016 1:12 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple CEO Tim Cook's fourth annual CharityBuzz auction ended this afternoon, raising more than $500,000 for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The auction, which garnered more than 40 bids, includes a one hour lunch date with Tim Cook At Apple's Cupertino headquarters along with passes to a forthcoming Apple keynote event.

Two people are able to attend the lunch meeting with Cook, with the experience set to last for approximately one hour. While lunch is included in the price of the auction, travel and accommodations are not. The offer expires on May 5, 2017, and the winner will be able to schedule their appointment on a "mutually agreed upon date."

In the final hours of the auction, bidding ramped up significantly, jumping from $275,000 yesterday afternoon to the more than $500,000 finishing price.

timcookcharityauctionended
Image via 9to5Mac

At $515,000, the 2016 CharityBuzz auction brought in more money than it did in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, the auction raised $200,000, while in 2015, it brought in $330,001. In 2013, the first year the auction was held, someone paid $610,000 to have lunch with Cook.

It's possible the auction winner will be able to use the keynote event tickets to attend the keynote for the Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple is expected to debut new versions of iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS, and perhaps new Mac models.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, a charity Tim Cook has supported for several years. Earlier in 2016, Tim Cook was elected to the RFK Center's board of directors.

Tags: Tim Cook, Charitybuzz
[ 77 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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convergent
38 months ago
Dang it, I got outbid again!
Rating: 7 Votes
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chrismail627
38 months ago
I hope a MacRumors user won, so he/she can ask Tim all the questions we wish we could, like:

"Why have you paid almost no attention to the Mac?"
"16 GB? Really?"
"How can iTunes still suck after all this time?"

And stuff like that :D
Rating: 6 Votes
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Porco
38 months ago

I would love to know what is on the menu


I do hope it's not another otter. :eek:

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Edit: Wow, so sad to see my post got edited (along with another the removal of another forumer's entire post) to remove any reference to the typo in the originally posted article that my remaining comment above partially refers to, that has very little context and makes little sense now. Another poster's comment and picture of an otter being removed entirely.

For anyone reading this in the future who was wondering, the article originally said that "The otter expires..." instead of "The offer expires...".

Mods, I'd like to suggest that rather than censoring posts in this way surely it would make more sense to strike-though the original typo like many websites do, rather than pretend it never happened. This is very on-topic, because 'Justice and Human Rights', as per the cause raising money from this offer, often rely upon openness and transparency rather than people in authority positions censoring the comments of others and then acting like the things that prompted the comments never happened in the first place.

Anyway, I'm glad this auction raised so much money for a good cause, and it would indeed be interesting to know what was on the menu.
Rating: 5 Votes
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B.K.
38 months ago
:apple:Lunch Edition
Rating: 5 Votes
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doelcm82
38 months ago

That is one expensive Lunch. I Think it would be interesting to take part in this and have a little more insight on Apple.

I think you would gain a little insight on what it is like to have lunch with Tim Cook, but probably not much deep intel on Apple
Rating: 4 Votes
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doelcm82
38 months ago

Or even better, have 1 million tickets available world wide for $20. Fly the people to Apple HQ from where ever in the world with 1 weeks accommodation in SF.

This would allow "the little people" a chance too, but perhaps thats the point, we are only there to buy the products.

Are you suggesting one million one-on-one lunches with Tim? Or Tim sitting at the head of a table that seats a million and one people?
Rating: 3 Votes
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Chupa Chupa
38 months ago

I wonder if Tim Cook made the winner pay for his lunch as well...you know...he needs to be fed by the winner.
I would hate to the be winner and sitting there for 2 hrs while listening to him talk about how he wants to change the world.


updated: so this is what Tim was talking about in terms of profit.


If that were the case I would have bid and if I won would have brought him crow to eat while he explained to me why my AW is so slow, why ATV is so meh, how a price hike on the new iPad 9.7 model will reverse the line's downward sales curve, and of course, when will MBP get TB3 & USB 3.1 & 4K screens?
Rating: 3 Votes
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mkeeley
38 months ago
Would pay good money not to have dinner with him. Can't think of anything more boring.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Rocketman
38 months ago
Here's what I don't get. If there is that much interest in one ticket, offer two and raise twice as much money, and offer as many as they want for a buy it now price of say $400,000.
Rating: 3 Votes
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eac25
38 months ago

So guys, what should I ask Tim when I win this thing?

Whether he knows the average wing speed ... ;-)
Rating: 3 Votes

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