Shaquille O’Neal Announces $2 million contribution to Covid-19 campaign

NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal has announced a $2 million donation to people struggling financially because of Covid-19. O’Neal made the announcement at the 30,000-attendee online conference Collision from Home, produced by the team behind Web Summit – the world’s largest tech conference.

O’Neal has teamed up with Steady – a platform that helps users find jobs, seek financial advice and save money – and joined CEO Adam Roseman to speak about why the company is making the $2 million donation.

“We, as Steady, are giving away $2 million in emergency cash grants for those people that we’ve identified that have had losses due to Covid-19. Even though as a business we’re not where we want to be, our aim is still to help people make income. Looking at the stats – 40 million people out of work – that saddens me,” said O’Neal.

O’Neal explained why he got involved with Steady, remembering the financial hardship his family experienced.

“I had to go back to my childhood, and you know what, my mom and dad needed something like this. Because I used to see them struggle, going through newspapers, borrowing money from people, trying to go to the bank. I thought this is the right thing to do,” said O’Neal.

Using data that users have uploaded to the app, Steady has been able to see how Covid-19 has disproportionately affected African-Americans in the US.

“What’s unbelievably shocking is that over 70 percent of these individuals have stated that they’ve had to skip meals as a result of the income loss they’ve suffered. What’s equally as shocking, relevant to everything that’s going on around us right now, is that roughly 50 percent of these individuals are African-American,” said CEO Adam Roseman.

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