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Photo: Apple.com

The blogosphere and facebook/Twitter worlds are belching smoke as everyone tries to express their dismay at the early death of Apple’s Steve Jobs. He had an earth-rattling effect on the way we not just communicate, but the ways in which we function every day. I’m a big fan of this quote of his: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs

Many have groused over the years, or simply been perplexed that a super company like Apple did not have a more generous, developed, and transparent philanthropic element. Imagine if such an enormous business powerhouse put its weight behind world issues, not instead of, but as complement to the innovation of their products. Their capacity to make a difference would be unmatched, yet there was no Apple giving program for the past many years. When Steve stepped down for health reasons, his successor, Tim Cook, was quick to bring this issue into alignment with the general make-the-world-a-better-place philosophy that has always been the Apple ethos. His company-wide memo from last month:

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 fulltime 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

Nobody has ever suggested that Mr Jobs was any kind of Ebenezer Scrooge…quite the contrary, he was always said to be very generous with his giving, but preferred to do so anonymously. I cannot suggest he should have done otherwise, but I do admit, I am pleased that the Apple universe is now more demonstrably synchronized with the charitable universe. There is no reason not to follow our hearts.