Apple founder and recently retired CEO Steve Jobs has accumulated a personal fortune of $8.3 billion, but despite this, he is not known for his philanthropic contributions — at least, not publicly. According to the public record, he hasn’t given any money to charity in decades, and he reportedly declined to join Bill Gates’ and Warren E. Buffett’s Giving Pledge, a campaign to persuade the wealthiest to give away at least half their fortunes.
So is it time Jobs pulled a Bill Gates and start giving his money away?
The question is raised in a provocative column by Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times’ Dealbook blog.
Sorkin notes that Jobs has given an innumerable gifts to society in terms of technology, but hasn’t publicly given any of his personal $8.3 billion fortune away.
… the lack of public philanthropy by Mr. Jobs — long whispered about, but rarely said aloud — raises some important questions about the way the public views business and business people at a time when some “millionaires and billionaires” are criticized for not giving back enough while others like Mr. Jobs are lionized.
Sorkin notes that Jobs may well give anonymously. And he may have plans for his enormous wealth after he dies. But publicly, Jobs has done little for philanthropy, which Sorkin finds puzzling give Jobs’ disdain of wealth for wealth’s sake.
Sorkin also notes that Apple sits on a cash pile of $76 billion. Apple had corporate philanthropic programs when Jobs returned in 1997, but he closed them to concentrate on retuning the company to profitability. They have never been reinstated.
It’s also noted that Jobs has never spoken up about cancer or cancer research, unlike other celebrity survivors like Lance Armstrong.
What do you think? Has Steve been storing up his philanthropy for when it can garner his full attention, or does he simply intend to leave the world his legacy in a different way than Bill Gates and other philanthropist billionaires? Let us know in the comments.
