And what exactly does this charity do? There's a lot of big problems in the world and there aren't a lot of great solutions for them, or else those solutions would have been funded and our problems solved.
There are a lot of dumb ideas for how to solve problems with charities built around them that certainly shouldn't be funded.
So is SF Gives built around a great solution or an incredibly dumb one.
Here's an idea: evenly distribute the money across the poor people.
Do you know what SF Gives does? I don't. In fact, I spent all of 5 minutes quickly looking to see if I could find out and I cannot. I may be able to if I invest more time, but I did find a link that suggests there are other charities that may have been better suited for half a mill.
http://scarver.hubpages.com/hub/The-best-anti-poverty-nonprofits-in-San-Francisco
SF needs this, without a doubt and they need much more than half a million. I'm not saying Apple should be the one to fix the poverty issue, of course. It is good to see Apple giving as I believe their track record has been lackluster in this area.
Giving back to a community that has made you super rich is the right thing to do.
I'm not sure poverty-stricken people are at all part of the community that made Apple rich. It is great to "give back" but obviously the people in need aren't the people carrying around iOS devices and Mac PCs.
I simply believe that giving money to an organization that should be using every single dime to better the lives of those who live well below the poverty line, in my opinion, is not giving back to a community that made them rich.
Apple is 'super rich' because the offered a product that people were willing to by for the price that was asked, which is itself a benefit to society. Giving money to a charity that gives some of the donated money to people in poverty is not something that impresses me. I'd rather a company not give to charity, and lower the price of their goods and I can donate more to the charities of my choice.
But would you? Would everyone? And that charity should be using 100% of that money to benefit those in need.
I think Apple's Product(Red) is mildly pathetic. They offer a product in a color, they charge you a bit more, then they supposedly give the funds over to charity. I would rather choose another color and give the money to charity myself but I wouldn't ever think that Apple needs to lower prices to make it easier for me to buy crap that I likely don't need. In truth, and I assume you could be a great exception, but the savings we see isn't going to go anywhere but towards other stuff we probably don't need.
I think there was a thing on Amazon that asked if you wanted to donate money after you shopped to a charity of your choosing. I like that method a lot. Let me take whatever I saved and give it back right away. Or do what Whole Foods does, let me round my purchase up to the nearest dollar and that difference goes to charity. Short of annual donations in memory of loved ones passed, I like being able to take an extra dollar here and there and sink it into something worthwhile.
