NFL free agent Colin Kaepernick announced Wednesday that he will name 10 beneficiaries over the next 10 days for the final $100,000 of his $1 million pledge to charity. Each organization picked will receive an additional $10,000 from a different celebrity.
The first charity announced was Silicon Valley De-Bug, a community organization in San Jose and Northern California’s South Bay that benefits youth, immigrants and low-wage workers. The match to Kaepernick’s $10,000 comes courtesy of Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant.
The $20,000 total will go toward travel stipends for families to visit their loved ones in prison; raising awareness of a campaign for a law that would increase protections to young people in prison; funding pretrial release for those who can’t make bail; and supporting initiatives that seek to end bail.
Since October 2016, Kaepernick has donated to more than 30 charitable recipients ranging from Mothers Against Police Brutality to the I Will Not Die Young Campaign. His donations have been earmarked for everything from clothing for the needy to caskets for the dead.
Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, announced his pledge after he began kneeling for the national anthem during the 2016 preseason, in protest of racial inequality and police brutality.
He made $12.3 million in 2016 and was not signed by a team in 2017. In October, he filed a lawsuit against NFL owners, alleging that his kneeling during the national anthem led to them colluding to keep him out of the league.
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