Almost curiously on the heels of the criticism of Steve jobs' lack of a public record of philanthropy, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced today that the company has launched a new charitable matching program for its employees.  The company is offering to match employees' personal charitable contributions up to $10,000 per year.

While the program is currently limited to full-time U.S. employees, plans are in place to expand it to other countries over time.  The program was announced in a company-wide email by Tim Cook and was provided to MacRumors:

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 full-time 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

MacRumors mentioned that an Apple spokesperson also confirmed that the program was now in place. 

As mentioned earlier, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs caught some flack for a lack of a public record of philanthropy.  However, US singer Bono was quick to jump to Jobs' defense, noting that Apple had contributed "tens of millions of dollars" to the (Product)RED campaign against AIDS.

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(Image courtesy of business-ethics.com)