Apple Donates $5 Million to Hand in Hand for Hurricane Relief Efforts, Will Accept iTunes Donations This Weekend

Apple today donated $5 million to the Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief Fund to support those who have been affected by both Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma.

Hand in Hand is planning to host a live telethon on Tuesday, September 12 to raise additional money for hurricane relief efforts. Proceeds from the upcoming telethon will benefit the Rebuild Texas Fund, Feeding Texas, Save the Children, United Way, Habitat for Humanity, and DirectRelief.

Celebrities and performers like George Clooney, Matthew McConaughey, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Stephen Colbert, Julia Roberts, Robert De Niro, Ellen DeGeneres, Drake, Jamie Foxx, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, and more are set to make appearances during the telethon.

In addition to donating $5 million, Apple is also planning to allow Apple customers to donate to Hand in Hand through the App Store and iTunes as if often does in similar disaster situations.

"On behalf of everyone at Apple, our hearts go out to the millions of people whose lives have been disrupted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and the many more still bracing for Irma's impact," said Apple's CEO Tim Cook. "We applaud Hand in Hand for bringing together people from all over the country to help one another at a time when so many desperately need it. In addition to Apple's direct contribution to the relief and recovery efforts, we're making it easy for anyone in the US to make their own donations to Hand in Hand through the App Store and iTunes."

Apple last week donated $2 million to the Red Cross to benefit those affected by Hurricane Harvey, and raised an additional $1 million through employee and iTunes donations.

Hurricane Harvey caused widespread flooding and destruction in Texas and Louisiana last week, while Hurricane Irma, now a category 4 storm, is forecasted to make landfall in Florida this weekend. Irma hit Puerto Rico and several Caribbean islands over the course of the week, with St. Martin, St. Barts, Anguilla, Barbuda, and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands seeing some of the worst devastation.

Top Rated Comments

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chscag

17 months ago

We donated to "Samaritan's Purse" for both Harvey and Irma. I do not trust either the Red Cross or most other charities. Some of them have a lot of overhead and pay high salaries to their executives which means a good portian of your donation is absorbed by the charity. Make sure you do homework on the charity before giving.

Rating: 4 Votes

thisisnotmyname

16 months ago

Tim Cook needs to stop pushing his anti-hurricane agenda and update the Mac Mini. Did I do that right? :p

Rating: 3 Votes

joonyaboy

16 months ago

Let's compare:

* A person making $100,000/y giving a reasonable $100 = 0.001 of income

* Apple making $200,000,000,000 giving $2,000,000 = 0.00001 (1/100 of a person)

Scaled down to a person, Apple is giving $1.

They’re not a person. They’re a business. And they’ll lose investors and money if they give too much away.

Rating: 2 Votes