Google Earmarks $265 Million for Charity

Google gave the first details yesterday of how it would carry out its commitment to devote a share of its lucrative public stock offering to charity and social causes. It said it had donated $90 million to a new charitable foundation it started and would give another $175 million to nonprofit groups and what it considers socially useful businesses over the next two to three years.

Sheryl Sandberg, a Google vice president for sales who is also coordinating the foundation and related programs, said the company would focus its charitable efforts in two areas: global poverty, and energy and the environment.

Google is just beginning to make grants with these funds. It has given $5 million to the Acumen Fund, a New York group that encourages entrepreneurs in developing countries to create businesses that can assist in providing health care, housing and other needs of the poor.

And it gave $2 million to the One Laptop Per Child program started by Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which seeks to develop a $100 computer to give to children in the developing world.

In Google's annual report, filed in April, Mr. Brin and Mr. Page said they had decided to put the money into a broader range of initiatives including investments in "socially progressive corporations" and "influencing public policy."

Sounds like the Google boys aren't just taking on Microsoft the company, they are also going after the Gates Foundation too. Good for them. I think global poverty and energy and the environment are great things to go after.

via New York Times