About Google.org
Posted by Sheryl Sandberg, VP, Global
Online Sales & Operations
When we told prospective shareholders about Google and
how we wanted to do business, we said that we hoped our
philanthropic efforts could some day have a greater impact than
Google itself. We committed one percent of our profits and equity
toward that vision. We’ve looked closely at how those resources can
have the greatest impact and found that there are many creative and
effective ways to make a difference. So we’ve taken time to
investigate, learn and imagine. And while we are still actively
engaged in the learning process, we’ve made enough progress that we
thought it was a good time to give an update on our plans.
As our founders said in our
annual report, we’re taking a broad approach. We’re calling
the umbrella under which we’re putting all of these efforts
work of the Google Foundation, some of Google’s own projects, as
well as partnerships and contributions to for-profit and non-profit
entities. Here are some things we're already working on:
We established the Google Foundation, funded it with $90 million
and have made a few initial commitments. We've contributed $5
million to support Acumen
Fund, a non-profit venture fund that invests in market-based
solutions to global poverty. Acumen Fund supports entrepreneurial
approaches to delivering affordable goods and services for the 4
billion people in the world who live on less than $4 a day.
We’re also working with
businesses that create jobs and promote economic growth in the
developing world. With TechnoServe, we are funding an
entrepreneurship development program in Ghana that includes a
business plan competition and seed capital for the winners to build
their businesses.
In addition, we are working with Alix Zwane and Edward Miguel of UC
Berkeley and Michael Kremer of Harvard University to support
research in western Kenya to identify ways to prevent child deaths
caused by poor water quality.
Google.org also includes projects we manage on our own, using
Google talent, technology and other resources. An example is the
>Google Grants program,
which gives free advertising to selected nonprofits. To date,
Google Grants has donated $33 million in advertising to more than
850 nonprofit organizations in 10 countries.
Current Google Grants participants include:
Make-a-Wish Foundation -
grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical
conditions. More than 25 percent of their online donations are made
as a result of their Google ads.
Doctors Without
Borders - delivers emergency medical aid to people affected by
armed conflict, epidemics, disasters, and exclusion from health
care in nearly 70 countries. Google Grants has assisted them with
recruiting experienced doctors and nurses for their field programs,
which has helped them increase applications by 30 percent this
year.
Grameen Foundation USA -
uses microfinance and innovative technology to help the world's
poorest people escape poverty. Google Grants has helped them
attract donors and broaden their newsletter subscriber base.
With Google.org, we’ll also support entities with strong social
missions which use market-based solutions for sustainable economic
development. One example is our recent donation of $2 million to
the One Laptop Per Child
program.
While the results we get are more important than the amount of
money we give, we want to be clear about how we’re going to keep
our “one percent” commitments. There are two parts: equity and
profit. For the one percent of equity, we have committed one
percent of the outstanding shares that resulted from our initial
public offering – 3 million shares. We’re going to donate and
invest this amount over a period of as much as 20 years. Because it
is based on stock, the dollar value of this commitment will rise
and fall with our stock price
We’ll follow through on the other commitment – one percent of
profit – by taking one percent of each year’s profits and donating
and investing that too. Our first step in meeting these commitments
includes a $90 million cash donation to the Google Foundation and a
commitment of up to $175 million over three years across our other
Google.org efforts. We don’t expect to make further donations to
the Foundation for the foreseeable future.
As Larry and Sergey said in their Founders’ Letter, “We hope
someday this institution may eclipse Google itself in terms of
overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and
significant resources to the world's problems."
We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute our
resources, talent, energy, and passion helping to solve some of the
world’s most pressing problems. We will provide you with updates as
our work progresses.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment this post.