Google.org has been established by the search engine company to be an umbrella for Google’s philanthropy efforts; they will keep a ‘one percent’ commitment to finance it.
Google’s Sheryl Sandberg, a VP for global online sales and operations, posted a note on the official Google blog about the company’s philanthropic work and Google.org.
“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,” she wrote.
Those efforts will be under the Google.org umbrella. Included will be the company’s Google Foundation, as well as some other projects and partnerships. Sandberg reiterated the ‘one percent’ commitment in noting how 3 million shares of Google’s stock, and one percent of each year’s profits, will support Google.org.
Sandberg noted how the company already has made some Google Foundation commitments, with contributions to Acumen Fund and TechnoServe. The company also contributes via its Google Grants program to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and the Grameen Foundation.
Google.org will accept grant requests and staffing applications in the future. Currently, a message from company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin appears there: “We hope that someday this institution will eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world’s problems.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
