Yahoo Finance Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, foundation donate $1 million amid coronavirus pandemic
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has pledged to donate $1 million through his foundation, “The Ballmer Group,” to local community groups in the Southern California area amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Ballmer has already donated $250,000 to both the Los Angeles County Office of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District, per the report. Both organizations plan to use the funds to help distribute food and other necessary items to students and families in need while schools in the area are closed due to the outbreak.
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The group also plans to donate $100,000 to Brilliant Corners, an organization helping the homeless, and $150,000 to the California Community Foundation, which supports low-income and low-wage workers, per the report. It has not yet decided how to allocate the remaining $250,000.
Ballmer, the former Microsoft executive who purchased the Clippers in 2014, pledged $3 million to a fund to help those impacted by the coronavirus in the Seattle area, per the Los Angeles Times.
More than 234,000 people across the globe have been diagnosed with the coronavirus as of Thursday night, and at least 9,800 people have died due to the virus, according to the New York Times. There were at least 11,810 cases in the United States alone, including more than 1,000 in Washington and nearly 1,000 in California.
Ballmer is just the latest in the NBA world to donate amid the outbreak. Several other team owners, including Dallas owner Mark Cuban and New Orleans Pelicans owner Gayle Benson, have pledged to take care of displaced arena workers who are now out of work with the league on hiatus.
Multiple players have made the same pledge in their respective cities, too, including Zion Williamson, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love and more. Their pledges came just days after the league suspended operations following Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert’s positive test on March 11 — which quickly shut down the league and prompted almost every other major sports league in the country to follow suit.
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