Twitter’s Jack Dorsey pledges $3m to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced another round of Start Small business grants. During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and protests across the US against the death of George Floyd in police custody, Dorsey says $3 million will go to former NFL player and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, which works to educate, empower and mobilize “the next generation of change leaders.”

KYRC aims “to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities,” and has run camps in Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago, New York City, Miami and Oakland, California.

Dorsey also pledged $5 million for World Central Kitchen to provide meals in Oakland during the “ongoing health, economic and humanitarian crises” and $500,000 to Sister Hearts LA, which provides ex-offenders with a safe environment to live in.

As part of this round, Dorsey additionally announced $1 million for Dig Deep H20 to connect hot and cold running water in remote Indigenous homes; and $50,000 for Project NIA, which works to end arrest, detention, and incarceration of children and young adults.

Some of the COVID-19-related pledges were $350,000 for Edgewood Center for emergency essential services; $200,000 for JW-Family Foundation for a 30-day rent relief program in Washington D.C.’s Ward 8; and $250,000 for St Francis Community Service’s clients negotiating eviction from their homes during the pandemic.

It follows Dorsey in April committing to pledge $1 billion to coronavirus relief, including $1 million to Masks For The People, an organization working to deliver masks and hand sanitizer to minority communities.

Earlier Wednesday, Google also pledged $12 million in funding to civil rights groups and YouTube $1 million. Other tech giants that are donating to civil rights movements this week include Apple at an unspecified amount; Verizon $10 million; TikTok $4 million; Intel $1 million; and Facebook $10 million, despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to remove or hide posts by US President Donald Trump about the protests that Twitter flagged as “glorifying violence.”