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“Someday this institution may eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact.”
-Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 2004
January 17, 2008 —
The first round of grants awarded by Google's "DotOrg" charitable organization has been announced. In total, $175 million will be doled out worldwide to charities and research projects in the next three years, across five areas of philanthropy:
Disease and disaster prevention; improving the flow of information to hold governments accountable in community services; helping small and medium-size enterprises; developing renewable energy sources that are cheaper than coal; and investing in the commercialization of plug-in vehicles.
Google had already developed a reputation as one of the world more socially conscious corporations, but until now it has focussed mostly on responsible, forward-thinking business practices rather than philanthropy. An investment in renewable energy technologies totaling several hundred million dollars was announced in November, drawing criticism from some shareholders who felt that such expenditures should be the role of Google.org, not the Google Inc.
