Southern California Wildfire Relief: Consider Donating to the Red Cross Through Apple

Apple:

Click the amount you wish to contribute, then click Donate and Apple will transfer 100% of your contribution to the American Red Cross in support of people impacted by the 2025 Southern California wildfires.

Apple has prominent links to its Red Cross donation form on the web and in the App Store. They’ve been doing this after catastrophes and disasters around the world for a long time. On the surface, it’s great because it’s so easy. Apple already has your saved credentials so it takes just a few taps or clicks to donate. You can measure the time to donate in seconds, not minutes.

But an under-appreciated aspect of Apple acting as a front-end to the Red Cross is that your donation remains completely private. There’s quite a lot of small print on the donation screen, which starts:

Because Apple is not sharing your personal information with the American Red Cross, the American Red Cross is unable to further acknowledge your donation. You will receive an email receipt from Apple, which will serve as the only record of your donation. The donation will also appear on your credit card statement as a transaction with Apple. You do not purchase any goods or receive any services from Apple by making a donation. Any donation collected by Apple is collected in the name, and on behalf, of the American Red Cross. This donation may not qualify for any tax deduction or other tax benefits. By donating through Apple, you acknowledge that any tax consequences to you in making the donation (including, but not limited to, ensuring you have sufficient documentation to claim any applicable tax deduction) shall be your responsibility. Apple Account credit cannot be used to make a donation. Apple will transfer 100% of your contribution to the American Red Cross in support of people impacted by the 2025 Southern California wildfires (including Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial Counties).

This sounds like a bunch of ignorable legalese but what it really means is quite interesting. You’re not giving to the Red Cross through this. You’re giving money to Apple, and Apple will then transfer 100 percent of it to the Red Cross. I’m almost certain, for example, that Apple is covering the cost of the card transaction fees.

By donating this way, you will never get junk mail, email, or text messages from the Red Cross, or from any “partner” of the Red Cross, soliciting additional donations, because the Red Cross will never get your name, address, or number. All they get is your money.

Back in August I wrote about how my political solicitations via SMS had gotten so out of control, so downright annoying, that my wife and I had scaled back our donations to political campaigns, because it was obvious that previous campaigns we had donated to had shared or sold our information. We’d been put on a Suckers List.

The same thing, sadly, happens with charities. People generally don’t want to admit to selfishness, but I will. When I give money to a charitable cause, I always look for the checkboxes to opt out of being contacted by them in the future. When it happens anyway, I get annoyed, and I become reluctant to give to that charity again. And because it has happened repeatedly, it’s made me at least somewhat more reluctant to give to any charitable cause in the first place. I know I’m not alone in feeling that way.

When you donate to the Red Cross via Apple, that concern is off the table. Apple won’t emphasize that aspect of this, because they don’t want to throw the Red Cross under the proverbial bus, but I will. An underrated aspect of privacy is the desire simply not to be annoyed.

★ Wednesday, 22 January 2025