Google Grants Aim to Prove That Intelligent Use of Technology Can Be a Game Changer

When it comes to providing clean drinking water in developing countries, charities have little trouble finding donors who want to pay to drill wells.

But that doesn’t mean poor people have easy access to water. At any given time, as many as a third of water sources in such countries aren’t working, says Jacquelline Fuller, director of charitable giving at Google.

Last December, Google gave $5-million to Charity: Water to develop and install sensors on 4,000 water projects to provide real-time online tracking of whether water is flowing.

The grant is one of several major grants Google made in 2012 through its Global Impact Awards, which go to charities that use technology and innovative approaches to tackle significant problems.

Impact, Not Hoopla

Google has reorganized its giving to focus attention and money on the impact awards, in part to show all nonprofits and grant makers that savvy use of technology and data is just as important as the amount a company or other donor gives. If Google’s grant to Charity: Water identifies and helps to restore 1,000 nonfunctioning wells, the impact on low-income people will be enormous—even if the sensor-installation project lacks the hoopla that surrounds the drilling of a well.

“We’re not only helping that one particular nonprofit reach people with something tangible—like clean water—we’re also looking to shift the whole philanthropic sector toward more data-driven philanthropy,” Ms. Fuller says.

Google gave away $105-million in cash during 2012, plus $1-billion more in product donations, primarily advertising and productivity apps for nonprofits. [Editor’s note: The previous sentence corrects the total Google gave away in cash. The company had previously reported an incorrect number.]

Some of Google’s grants support university research, provide disaster relief, and match employee donations, leaving about $40-million to $50-million for Ms. Fuller’s division, now called Google Giving. (Previously, Google’s grant-making was housed under Google.org, but that division now focuses on Google’s in-house engineering efforts to achieve social impact, such as the creation of Google Person Finder, which helps people reconnect with loved ones following disasters.)

$5-Million Grants

The impact awards made by the Google Giving division are some of the largest and most eclectic awards in corporate America. Google made three grants of $5-million in 2012, more than any corporation except Safeway, which made three gifts exceeding $5-million.

Google gave $5-million to DonorsChoose for a program that rewards teachers who start Advanced Placement classes in math and science at low-income high schools. And the company gave $5-million to World Wildlife Fund for the use of special sensors in a tagging-and-tracking project designed to deter poaching of endangered species, such as elephants, rhinos, and tigers.

“Our leaders have been very clear that our No. 1 driver is charitable impact,” Ms. Fuller says. “We fund technology because that’s who we are and what we know.”

Overseas Projects

Last month Google made another $5-million pledge, to help reduce child pornography. The grant will support groups like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and will pay to create a database of encrypted sexual-abuse images to help police identify criminals.

Google, whose informal company motto is “launch and iterate,” tried a smaller version of the impact awards this year in the United Kingdom, where it sought ideas from the public about where to give grants and ultimately awarded four worth about $750,000 each and six worth $150,000.

Help From ‘Googlers’

Google does not accept unsolicited proposals, but it does accept ideas from its employees, and their interests help shape the company’s grant making. Charities that receive a grant are matched with Google employees eager to offer their skills in computer engineering, marketing, communications, and business development.

“We know from talking to ‘Googlers’ that one of major influences on their choice of where to go to work is what the company is doing to make the world a better place,” Ms. Fuller says.