Google recently announced that Google.org, a hybrid philanthropy organization, will be working on five initiatives to address some of the world's most urgent problems. The news gained attention not only for the problems the organization chose to address, but the way in which they're being addressed.
To give you the context of the most recent news, let's go back in time to 2004, when Google held its IPO. At that time, company founders Larry Page and Sergy Brin told prospective shareholders that they were committed to contributing one percent of Google's equity and profits to making the world a better place. That commitment, in late 2005, turned into Google.org. It was backed by the equivalent of three million shares of Google stock, which has continued to climb in value.
Interestingly, Google.org is not actually a charitable institution. It is a for-profit organization. It pays taxes. It does have a non-profit arm, Google Foundation. The fact that it is a hybrid organization gives it a certain flexibility that it wouldn't have as an ordinary charitable institution. For example, there is nothing to prevent it from funding start-up companies.
Some have described this approach as social entrepreneurship. It's not enough to merely spend money to buy people food, for example; a social entrepreneur would invest in ways to help people support themselves so they can buy their own food. CNet used an interesting analogy to describe Google.org's approach: "Instead of just giving a man a fish, or even teaching him to fish, a social entrepreneur would invest in his fishing net business."
So far, as I mentioned, Google has chosen to undertake five specific initiatives, which I'll discuss in a moment. Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org, explains the choice as follows: "These five initiatives are our attempt to address some of the hard problems we as a world need to face in the coming decade. We have chosen them both because we think solving them will make a better, fairer, safer world for our children and grandchildren -- and the children and grandchildren of people all over the world -- but also because we feel that these core initiatives fit well with Google's core strengths, especially its innovative technologies and its talented engineers and other Googlers, who are really our most valuable resources."
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