Anti-Defamation League donations spiked 1,000% after Charlottesville
In the week following the violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., on August 12, the Anti-Defamation League saw a 1,000% spike in donations compared to an average week, it says.
The number of donations made online also rose 600% versus the average. More than half of the online donations came from first-time donors.
The ADL declines to share dollar-amounts of its donations.
The notable list of corporate donors in the past nine days includes Apple ($1 million, and it will match employee donations), Uber, JPMorgan ($500,000), and the dating app Bumble. MGM Resorts will match all ADL donations that its employees make.
James Murdoch gave a $1 million individual donation, saying, “I can’t even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis.”
Separately, Arnold Schwarzenegger donated $100,000 to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
In a statement about the spike in donations, ADL spokesperson Betsaida Alcantara listed those companies, as well as Murdoch, and added, “We are proud that the great majority of the online individual gifts were received from first-time donors to ADL.”
To be sure, donating to a nonprofit like the ADL, immediately after an event like the Charlottesville rally, is not necessarily free of controversy. Some consumers might see it as these companies taking a political side. But in 2017, a wide range of big companies, consumer-facing brands, and CEOs have been forced to do exactly that.
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Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering media, sports and tech. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.
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