Apple’s Irish staff donated €2m to charity in 2020

The tech giant’s Cork-based employees donated to charities such as Pieta and the LauraLynn Foundation.

Charities supported by Apple’s Irish employees included Cork ARC Cancer Support House

Adrian Weckler Twitter Email

March 29 2021 05:11 PM

Apple’s Irish employees donated €2m to charities in 2020, giving up 115,000 hours to support different causes.

The company says that volunteering hours increased 450pc annually during the pandemic months of March 2020 to March 2021.

The suicide prevention charity Pieta, which received over 70,000 crisis support calls and texts and supported over 600 households affected by suicide, was one of over 200 charities to benefit.

“In 2020, Pieta delivered over 52,000 hours of in-person suicide intervention and suicide bereavement counselling,” said Sinead Price, co-director of fundraising at Pieta.

“We rely on public donations and the generosity of individuals, like the staff at Apple, to ensure we can provide our free service to those in need across the country.”

Other charities to benefit included Cork ARC Cancer Support House, the LauraLynn Foundation and BUMBLEance.

Apple says that 2020 was the biggest year to date for its ‘Giving’ program. For every hour an employee volunteers or euro they donate, Apple matches that with a monetary donation to the same organisation. The company says that since the programme’s inception in 2011, Apple employees have raised almost €500m in total donations, including more than 1.6 million hours volunteered, for more than 34,000 organisations.