Apple’s Employee Giving Program saw its best year ever, says the company. The iPhone maker said that 2020 was “a landmark year of giving” by its employees.
Apple supports charitable donations and volunteering by its employees by matching every dollar donated and giving an additional sum for every hour of voluntary service by its staff …
Apple didn’t break down 2020 specifically, but did highlight the totals achieved since the program was launched back in 2011.
Since the program’s inception in 2011, Apple employees have raised almost $600 million in total donations — including more than 1.6 million hours volunteered — for more than 34,000 organizations
The company emphasized that this is additional its own corporate giving.
This is on top of the corporate donations Apple’s Community Investment team makes each year to nonprofits around the world, including Feeding America, FIRST, Malala Fund, Simplon, and many others.
Apple is also investing in a multimillion-dollar annual grant program geared toward supporting organizations in communities where Apple teams live and work, including food banks, health and social services, youth art programs, and more.
This holiday season, Apple is donating an additional $5 million to support an array of global organizations that are helping families and communities worldwide weather the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic — from hunger relief to medical care.
The Giving program saw Apple staff help the British Red Cross raise more than £2M ($2.7M) this year.
Given the challenges posed by the pandemic, Apple employees found new ways to continue making an impact in their communities through virtual or outdoor volunteering opportunities. These included the British Red Cross’s Miles for Refugees event in the United Kingdom.
Participants chose a target distance — modeled on actual journeys that refugees have taken to reach safety and a new life — and then collected money from sponsors for completing the event through a physical activity of their choosing. Apple volunteers made up the largest corporate team participating in 2020.
“This year’s event went on to raise over £2 million, and we couldn’t have done it without the support of so many Apple volunteers who took part,” says Maddy Janes, mass participation event manager for the British Red Cross.
Apple employees also helped recycle old material into 14,000 face masks.
This year, kindness took on new forms. In Detroit, it came in the shape of 14,000 face masks, sewn together out of bow ties and old parade costumes, thanks to Apple employees Anthony Garrett-Leverett, Joe Cayao, and their friends and colleagues.
“When it came to repurposing materials to help folks, it was a no-brainer,” says Garrett-Leverett, a technical expert at Apple’s Twelve Oaks Store, who lost a number of friends to COVID-19 this year.
In March, Garrett-Leverett found out that Cayao, his Apple colleague, had started to use the material from his bow tie business to sew masks for those in need. Around the same time, Garrett-Leverett also discovered that employees at a local parade company had excess fabric from old costumes that they wanted to turn into masks. He coordinated their efforts, and the result was 14,000 masks he helped distribute to hospitals, convalescent homes, and frontline workers throughout the Metro Detroit area.
Apple last year said that the program raised $125M in 2018.
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