Tim Cook Initiates New Charity Program for Apple, Would Steve Jobs Approve?

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Tim Cook has taken over the CEO position of Apple last month after Steve Jobs has announced his departure from the helm of the company. Apple has not gone under since Cook became the actual CEO (he was the acting CEO on a number of occasions). In fact the company’s stock is steadily climbing and all that is happening before the launch of the iPhone 4S/5.

While Tim Cook is taking plenty of decisions that we don’t know about day-in and day-out, today an email he wrote to the team was leaked to show one important new change in official company policy. Apple will match charitable donation from Apple employees for up to $10,000 each year. This certainly is an interesting move and the shift in policy will initially apply for U.S.-based full time employees but it will expand to other countries in time.

The email, available below in full, was confirmed by Apple PR, something that didn’t really happen when emails written by Steve Jobs were leaked to the press:

Team:

I am very happy to announce that we are kicking off a matching gift program for charitable donations. We are all really inspired by the generosity of our co-workers who give back to the community and this program is going to help that individual giving go even farther.

Starting September 15, when you give money to a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Apple will match your gift dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000 annually. This program will be for full-time employees in the US at first, and we’ll expand it to other parts of the world over time.

Thank you all for working so hard to make a difference, both here at Apple and in the lives of others. I am incredibly proud to be part of this team.

If you’d like more information on the program, you can get it on HRWeb, which can be easily accessed through AppleWeb.

Tim

Steve Jobs was criticized before for Apple’s lack of philanthropic activities, although Apple is contributing to the campaign against AIDS through the (Product)RED program, as Bono, defending Jobs, showed recently, and he has been involved in personal charitable activities. It will be interesting to know how Jobs feels about this new Apple initiative. What’s certain is that Apple has enough cash to sustain such a charitable plan.