Apple Joins Tech Giving Effort With $500,000 Donation

Apple has joined some of its biggest Silicon Valley peers in pledging $500,000 to Salesforce.com mogul Marc Benioff’s SF Gives effort to enlist the biggest tech players in Bay Area anti-poverty efforts, Fortune reports.

Fifteen firms, including Google and LinkedIn, have now committed to SF Gives, a venture by Mr. Benioff and San Francisco charity Tipping Point, which seeks to raise $10-million from 20 tech companies by Wednesday. Silicon Valley firms have come under pressure to step up local their giving to help Bay Area neighborhoods where an influx of wealthy tech workers is widely blamed for skyrocketing rents and mounting evictions.

Apple, the world’s most valuable tech company, and its late founder, Steve Jobs, came in for criticism in the past for a perceived disdain for philanthropy and lack of cooperation with nonprofits. Since Mr. Jobs’s death in 2011, Apple has implemented a companywide program to match employees’ charitable giving, and it has raised $70-million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through the sale of Product (Red)-themed devices.