Google Lays Out Priorities for Its Huge Charity Program

Google's goal is to organize the world's information. But it said Thursday it also wants to help predict and prevent drought, slow the spread of infectious diseases, expand communication networks in developing countries and help solve global warming.

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the Internet search giant, outlined its priority areas for giving and announced $25 million in charitable grants. Among them is a $2.5 million donation to an arm of Nuclear Threat Initiative — run by business mogul Ted Turner and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga. — whose goal is to combat disease and other biological threats.

Together with previously announced projects, the new Google.org initiatives are designed to set the charity on a path that could someday make it as significant and as far-reaching as the giant Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the Rockefeller Foundation.

"We're brand new — we're just getting started," said Google.org Executive Director Dr. Larry Brilliant.

Brilliant joined Google.org last year. Since then, the organization has gotten "thousands, maybe tens of thousands" of requests for funding, he said.

Ultimately, Brilliant said, Google.org narrowed its priorities to five areas:

— Prediction and prevention of disease and climate change disasters

— Improvement of public services such as measuring the success of schools

— Funding small and medium-tech businesses

— Developing renewable energy that's cheaper than coal

— Accelerating the commercialization of electric cars

Google's founders have pledged 1 percent of the company's profit and equity to philanthropy. Already, Google.org has awarded more than $75 million in grants.

Still, given that Google's market capitalization is more than $190 billion, its charitable giving is relatively small, leading some to question Thursday whether its moves were merely aimed at garnering publicity.

"I don't know what a publicity stunt would look like," Google Vice President Sheryl Sandberg said in response to a reporter's question on a conference call announcing the initiatives. "This is a real commitment. ... We've committed real time, real energy and real money."

In addition to money, the company is investing unique resources tied to Google's strengths and assets, Brilliant said. One organization, for instance, is getting help from Google engineers to develop ways to track when infectious diseases surface around the globe by scanning news headlines and other information using the Internet.

Google and Google.org in recent years have become among the corporate world's biggest supporters of renewable energy and global warming initiatives. The biggest grant it announced Thursday was $10 million to eSolar, a California company that develops solar thermal power systems.

But other new programs push Google outside the energy arena in a significant way for the first time.

Among the grants announced Thursday were $5 million to the group Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters for early detection of global health threats; $2 million to Pratham, an India-based group that assesses schools; $4.7 million to TechnoServe, which helps business entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania, and $600,000 to Clark University to develop early-warning systems for droughts and other climate problems.

Terence Taylor, director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative's Global Health and Security Initiative, said its $2.5 million grant from Google is the biggest his group has ever received. It will be used to buy laboratory supplies and train workers to identify emerging diseases in Southeast Asia.

What makes Google.org different than other foundations, Taylor said, is its wide-ranging approach and its investments in a variety of different organizations, from non-profits, to businesses to public agencies.

"It's a broad approach ... with the realization that all of these things are connected," Taylor said.

"I think they're still just finding their way," he said, "and this is just the first little bit."

On the Web:

Google's philanthropic arm: www.google.org