Colin Kaepernick continues to make good on his "Million Dollar Pledge" of $100,000 a month for 10 consecutive months.
On Friday, Kaepernick announced donations to UCSF for the Mni Wiconi Health Clinic Partnership at Standing Rock ($50,000), Appetite for Change in Minneapolis ($25,000) and Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation of Chicago ($25,000).
The stated mission of the Colin Kaepernick Foundation is to "fight oppression of all kinds globally, through education and social activism." He made his first rounds of $100,000 donations in October and November.
Kaepernick announced his plan to donate $1 million to charities that support his mission after the 49ers' exhibition finale at San Diego – the first game he took a knee during the national anthem as part of his protest.
"I plan to take it a step further," Kaepernick said afterward in a packed interview room that included 20 national news reporters. "I'm currently working with organizations to be involved and making sure I'm actively in these communities, as well as donating the first million dollars I make this season to different organizations to help these communities and help these people."
Fifty percent of Kaepernick's donation to the UCSF clinic at Standing Rock in North Dakota will go to offset salaries for doctors and nurses who work at the free clinic for those who have gathered to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The protesters say the pipeline could threaten the upper Missouri River, the only water supply for the reservation.
Sports
The remainder of the donation goes toward offsetting building materials for the mobile medical clinic, medical supplies and liability insurance.
Appetite for Change works toward improving nutritional values of meals, education and furnishing a new urban farm plot in the 2017 growing season that will increase produce by approximately 1,000 pounds.
The majority of Kaepernick's donation to SOUL of Chicago will go toward Funding for Decarcerate Chicago, "a campaign to end mass incarceration and over-criminalization of communities of color in Illinois."
