AppleInsider Staff
Apple has activated a portal on its iTunes Store that allows users to give monetary donations directly to the American Red Cross, with the gifts going to relief efforts as those on the Eastern Seaboard cope with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
All told, the hurricane caused 33 U.S. fatalities, billions of dollars in damage and the electrical outages affecting some some 8 million people, 6.9 million of whom are still without power, reports CNN.
To alleviate some of the burden from government agencies, Apple and the Red Cross have partnered to offer an easy and anonymous system of donation giving through the iTunes Store. Because the service is linked with existing credit cards on file through Apple's servers, users can quickly give $5 to $200 simply by signing in to their iTunes account and clicking the "Donate" button.
According to the terms, iTunes will transfer 100 percent of all donations directly to the American Red Cross without sending users' names or contact information. Apple will not allow iTunes Store credit to be used when making donations.
The iTunes and Red Cross giving system was most recently activated following the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011. Before that, Apple offered the service in 2010, following a series of deadly earthquakes in Haiti.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
William Gallagher
24 Comments
I'm in the area that was hit by the storm, but I'm fine, since the particular area that I live in was basically untouched. Other areas were obviously not as lucky. I was outside earlier today, and things were back to normal, with a lot of annoying kids running around dressed up in Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating. It must suck to be a kid today, because they all seem to go trick-or-treating in stores around here. When I was a kid, it was all houses and apartments, not stores. And the tiny bags that they were walking around with contained about one tenth of the total candy haul that I remember getting as a kid. Kids now are also very rude, because I was in a store for a few minutes, and at least 10 kids came in while I was waiting on my order. Out of the ten, I noticed only one of them saying thank you after getting their candy. I wouldn't have given shit to any of the rude little buggers. What kind of terrible parents do those rude kids have?
The entire lower Manhattan does not have electricity, besides a building or two, like Goldman Sachs, and there are two Apple stores located in that area. I'm assuming that they'll be closed on Friday for the iPad launch. Maybe it'll be easier to get an iPad at the other Apple stores, if the stock gets moved from the affected stores, and the other Apple stores will have double the inventory.
As for the Red Cross, sorry, I don't donate to any "non-profit" charities where the CEO makes over a million bucks a year.
Great they are doing this. Don't forget also countries like Haiti that, in terms of ability to provide their own relief, were hit much harder.
Do Apple take a 30% cut of your donation? Also, "iTunes Store credit cannot be used to make a donation" - why?
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As for the Red Cross, sorry, I don't donate to any "non-profit" charities where the CEO makes over a million bucks a year.
What's your source for this? This article says you're wrong. This article agrees with your figure but points out that the figure of merit is the % of funds collected that get to the victims, and in the RC case, this is 92%. Here's a more recent article that puts the CEO salary at $500k (one year, 2010, she was paid double to cover relocating costs), and looks the most authoritative of the three.
The nice thing about the Internet is you can find stuff out so easily. The not so nice thing is you need to do your own BS filtering. Luckily there are some out there doing fact checking, and you can find them if you look. I suggest you read the third article I cite from beginning to end before commenting further.
What's your source for this?
I read it on Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/14/charities-11_American-National-Red-Cross_CH0013.html