Tim Cook pledges relief aid to Beirut

Apple is to support both the "immediate needs" and "long-term support" of relief organizations in Beirut, following the explosion that claimed at least 137 lives.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced via a tweet that the company is to donate to help with the relief efforts in Lebanon. He doesn't specify amounts, but implies that it's more than a one-off donation.

Apple is donating to relief organizations that are helping with immediate needs and long-term support in Beirut. We grieve with the people of Lebanon, our employees and all those affected by the tragedy.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 7, 2020

As yet, the announcement is solely on Cook's Twitter account. There are no further details on Apple's website.

The donation comes after many previous ones, most recently when Apple announced that it would be donating its share of earnings from the "John Lewis: Good Trouble" documentary to the National Civil Rights Museum and National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Apple has also given unspecified support to the rebuilding of France's Notre Dame cathedral. In April 2020, Cook announced that Apple was donating $10 million to support the World Health Organization's COVID-19 fundraiser.

14 Comments

randominternetperson 3095 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

It would be an interesting question for the next shareholders meeting: what process and criteria does Apple use to decide when and how to support disaster relief and other charitable efforts? Hopefully it’s more rigorous than whatever Cook or other top executives happens to be enthusiastic about.

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

randominternetperson said:

It would be an interesting question for the next shareholders meeting: what process and criteria does Apple use to decide when and how to support disaster relief and other charitable efforts? Hopefully it’s more rigorous than whatever Cook or other top executives happens to be enthusiastic about.

What’s wrong with giving to charities they’re enthusiastic about?

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

randominternetperson said:

It would be an interesting question for the next shareholders meeting: what process and criteria does Apple use to decide when and how to support disaster relief and other charitable efforts? Hopefully it’s more rigorous than whatever Cook or other top executives happens to be enthusiastic about.

Cook seems unusually eager throw company and shareholder money at his many “causes du jour”. Any other CEO would be sued by shareholders for misappropriation of funds. It’s an irresponsible use of money. Doesn’t matter how many billions they have in the bank. I’d rather take this “free cash” they seem to not know how to use and spend it as part of an increased dividend.

MacQuadra840av 207 comments · 4 Years

Rayz2016 said:

randominternetperson said:

It would be an interesting question for the next shareholders meeting: what process and criteria does Apple use to decide when and how to support disaster relief and other charitable efforts? Hopefully it’s more rigorous than whatever Cook or other top executives happens to be enthusiastic about.

What’s wrong with giving to charities they’re enthusiastic about?

I think people would feel better if Apple donated more to the fight against COVID to assist with finding a vaccine so we can restore normal lives, restore the economy, and help restore people back to work, rather than give money to a country that had an unfortunate fire that killed about 150 people. Currently 722K people have died from COVID and it continues to spread like crazy in the US, but Apple wants to give money to another country that had a fire. How about helping our own country for a change...like getting rid of this awful pandemic?