Apple's (RED) contributions in fight against AIDS reach $70 million
Apple's contributions to (RED), which aims to eliminate HIV and AIDS, have now reached $70 million to date, the charity officially announced on Friday.
The new total was revealed by (RED) via the charity's official Twitter account. That means that another $5 million for the cause has been raised since September of last year.
To date, Apple has raised more money than any other company for (RED). The iPhone maker has been promoting the cause since 2006, when Apple introduced special (Product)RED iPods and accessories.
A portion of the sales of Apple's (RED) branded products go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Last year, Apple design chief Jony Ive teamed up with fellow industrial designer Marc Newson to design several one-of-a-kind products for a (RED) benefit auction. Items included solid rose gold Apple EarPods, a red Mac Pro, and a completely custom Leica Digital Rangefinder.
When they went up for sale, the (Product)RED Mac Pro and EarPods sold for more than $1.4 million, going well beyond the amount they were expected to bring in. The nearly $1 million bid for the cylindrical Mac Pro alone made it the most expensive desktop PC ever built.

The new total was revealed by (RED) via the charity's official Twitter account. That means that another $5 million for the cause has been raised since September of last year.
To date, Apple has raised more money than any other company for (RED). The iPhone maker has been promoting the cause since 2006, when Apple introduced special (Product)RED iPods and accessories.
A portion of the sales of Apple's (RED) branded products go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Last year, Apple design chief Jony Ive teamed up with fellow industrial designer Marc Newson to design several one-of-a-kind products for a (RED) benefit auction. Items included solid rose gold Apple EarPods, a red Mac Pro, and a completely custom Leica Digital Rangefinder.
When they went up for sale, the (Product)RED Mac Pro and EarPods sold for more than $1.4 million, going well beyond the amount they were expected to bring in. The nearly $1 million bid for the cylindrical Mac Pro alone made it the most expensive desktop PC ever built.
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www.jobs39.com
certainly a good initiative but 70 million is embarrassing considering the size of Apple
I believe that Apple also matches each employee's charitable contributions up to $10,000 a year per employee and they may well support a lot of other charities that are not as well known as their support of (RED). Combine that with their green initiatives and working to improve the working and living conditions of their employees in developing countries and it probably all adds up to a pretty big number.
Once fund raising campaigns turn into full time jobs for people, more and more money goes into funding the operations than to the original target. Fund raising is a big business for some. It might not be profit making, but the bigger these organizations get, the more they spend the money maintaining the organization itself, which isn't supposed to be the point. My union was like this (it was self serving, to maintain its own existence, not support workers).
certainly a good initiative but 70 million is embarrassing considering the size of Apple
Who are you to judge Apple?
70 million dollars is 70 million more than zero dollars. Neither Apple or any other company has any obligation to fund any charities or other causes.
Apple is a business, not a welfare office.
YEP. It sure is Apple’s fault that more people aren’t purchasing product red products!¡
I was going to make a joke about stupid people saying that. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
If you look at his original post, you can see it’s indented (formatting-wise), and Huddler erases nested quotes from quotes. It thought the content of the post was that and just gave you what wasn’t nested.
YEP. It sure is Apple’s fault that more people aren’t purchasing product red products!¡
I avoid all RED products like the plague, including those from Apple and other RED products from other companies.
It's mostly because I just don't like the color red.
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certainly a good initiative but 70 million is embarrassing considering the size of Apple
Drop dead. Just drop dead and go away.
Apple is a greedy unscrupulous corporation like many others avoiding billion in taxes and brag about raising 70mil for great causes. Bill Gates donated 28 billions which is 400 times more!
Apple is a greedy unscrupulous corporation like many others avoiding billion in taxes and brag about raising 70mil for great causes. Bill Gates donated 28 billions which is 400 times more!
Don’t do that. There are people who actually believe this.
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Who are you to judge Apple?
70 million dollars is 70 million more than zero dollars. Neither Apple or any other company has any obligation to fund any charities or other causes.
Apple is a business, not a welfare office.
I agree that $70M is a lot of money and an unconditional 'well done' to Apple for raising it - they didn't have to. However, perspective is important too. I felt slightly uncomfortable seeing this story next to the story that Tim Cook's remuneration for 2013 was $73.9M. Now I think that Tim Cook is doing a great job running Apple and generating (actually creating) all this revenue in the first place so I have no quarrel with his remuneration - and he may be giving some of it to charity anyway (he's entitled to privacy).
However, this and things like the extravagant amount of money spent by Facebook on recent acquisitions (eg WhatsApp at $19 billion) suggests that $70M, in this context, is not as big number as it might be to you or I. That may be the OP's point.
The OP also neither judged, nor blamed Apple, despite the two hyper-defensive follow ups from the usual suspects.
I think it's pretty well established that Project (RED) has been a vast waste of time and resources when compared to actual achievement, mainly driven by celebrity and advertising ego.
Seventy million dollars to Apple is peanuts really. I am glad Apple is using some of their money for a great cause.
But there is great irony in AI's listing this article right next to another one describing Tim Cook's pay.
I know it's not a fair comparison but AI is nonetheless making it whether meaning to or not:
Red. 70 Million
Cook. Got 74 Million