(RED) Partner Apple Has Raised Over $65M For AIDS Research In Total

Apple partner Product(RED) announced early today that its partner Apple had helped it raise over $65M. The announcement was made by U2 singer Bono at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting today.

The $65M number means that Apple has raised around $15M since Feburary of 2012 with the initiative, if numbers out of an internal Apple meeting are accurate.

(RED) partners with a bunch of corporations like Nike, Starbucks, Apple, American Express and Beats, who contribute a slice of their profits from (RED) branded products to HIV/AIDS research. Bono and Bobby Shriver of ONE/DATA created the concept in 2006 and Apple has been a partner for some time.

Bono at #CGI2013 on @RED partners: “Apple is certainly leading the crew” Thank you Apple for raising over $65 million to fight AIDS.

— (RED) (@RED) September 26, 2013

Apple currently offers a bunch of (PRODUCT)RED merchandise including an iPod Shuffle, iPod nano and iPod touch, as well as some iPad and iPhone cases.The (RED) iniative has come under fire by promoting the kind of ‘middle-man’ philanthropy that wastes money on advertising and fancy events rather than donating directly. But the organiztion claims that it has raised $200M so far, and has impacted 14M people.

One couldn’t help but think about how much more money Apple might be able to donate if it produced a (RED) version of its most popular product: The iPhone.

Apple doesn’t have a reputation for public philanthropy but has been making some moves to change that reputation. Early last year, Tim Cook held a town hall meeting with Apple employees and noted several donations that Apple had made. Those included $50M to Stanford’s hospitals as well as the quoted $50M (RED) contribution.

Of course, Apple has around $146B in the bank, so charitable contributions are probably a good way to snag a tax break. Hopefully the expansion of Apple’s charitable efforts under Cook continues.