Web search firm Google – whose motto is “don’t be evil” – is setting up a subsidiary dedicated to doing good.
Its new philanthropic division, named Google.org, will fund social investment projects in the developing world.
Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are devoting 1% of Google’s stock and profits – almost $1bn (£573m) – to the new charitable venture.
The first beneficiaries include projects to improve water supplies in rural Africa and anti-poverty works.
The charity is the outcome of a pledge made by the California-based company at the time of its initial stock market flotation last year.
Among the first causes to benefit are:
* The Acumen Fund, which will receive $5m to fund anti-poverty and healthcare schemes in the developing world
* A research project in Kenya run by economists from Harvard University and the University of California, which will get $400,000 for efforts to improve rural water quality
* Ghanaian development organisation Technoserve will get $500,000 for a competition to find and fund business start-ups.
Google’s vice-president of operations and advertising Sheryl Sandberg – who is in charge of Google.org – said the company wanted to provide sustainable solutions to the problems of poverty, energy and the environment.
“It’s not a lot of money in the face of the world’s problems, so we want to make sure to get the most out of it,” she said.
The track record for American tech industry and charity spending sucks. Nice to see one added to the list of charities.
I was just staring at this.
We generate money by serving Google text advertisments on our Websites. With this money we automatically buy Google shares. We buy Google via their own advertisment! Google eats itself – but in the end “we” own it! http://www.gwei.org/
It must be some kind of new technology. I thought it was an interesting idea. I guess everybody will get rich. I want a new Ferrari.
Google should donate a billion dollars to get its Froogle search engine working. It’s crap. I’ve tried to buy outdated toys for my kids using the specific model number. In Froogle I get nothing. But using regular web search I can find the products for sale.
Froogle is a great idea, but for some reason it seems that either Google can’t get it to work or don’t want to.
This is a great move by Google – the focus needs to be on self-sustainable entrepeneurship so that with the help from the charity, jobs can be created while quality of life improves.
I suggest that one of the big 5 auditing firms casts an eye on the distribution of the cash and there are quarterly/bi-annual reviews of progress.
Lets not let this be another case of squandering the opportunity.
Cheers,
Angus
Johannesburg, South Africa
While the specific projects mentioned seem ok, the general description sounds like a disaster. Environmental giving usually runs against economic growth and creates more poverty. It’s one thing to spend money to boost water sanitation, but giving to groups that want to reduce carbon emissions is a problem. Also, most of the anti-poverty foreign aid is a waste of time. How will African farmers make money if the west is handing out free food? Africa is full of natural resources. 30 years ago, Zimbabwe was a food exporter. Google would do a great job if they hired some economists to tell those countries to change the tax policies that Europe set up to keep the colonies from competing with them.
Fish, I doubt if Google is satisfied with Froogle, either. That’s why it’s still qualified as Beta.