Spreading holiday cheer with charitable donations

The past couple of years have been a challenging stretch for charitable organizations as giving tends to decline during economic downturns when the need is highest. Charitable giving was down 3.6% in 2009, only the second year there’s been a drop since Giving USA began their reports in 1956. We continue to be inspired, however, by organizations that have stepped up with creative and effective programs to address today’s challenges. We’re grateful for the millions of Google users who helped continue our success in 2010, and we want to do our part to help charitable organizations that are working tirelessly to meet increased need with decreased funding.

In this spirit, our global sales team led by Nikesh Arora is giving a $20 million holiday gift that will provide:

• Schooling for 15,000 kids in poor communities in India through Bharti Foundation.
• Access to vital medication and health services, especially for women and girls, in post-conflict areas in Africa through Global Strategies for HIV Prevention.
• Vaccines to protect 50 million children from polio through UNICEF.
• Strategic support and online tools for 1.5 million social entrepreneurs through partners including Ashoka, NTEN, APC and LASA.
• Environmental education in the National Parks for 40,000 students through NatureBridge.

We will exceed our 2010 target this year with charitable giving, with more than $145 million going to non-profits and academic institutions, and more than $184 million in total giving when including Google Grants, Google.org technology projects and product support for non-profits. Some of our major initiatives include:

• Supporting science and math education and education reform through partners including New Schools Venture, Teach for All, Citizens Schools and Posse Foundation. We provide scholarships to help dismantle barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. We also support the next generation of engineers and maintain strong ties with academic institutions worldwide that are pursuing research in areas relevant to our mission.
  
  
• Responding to natural disasters in Pakistan, Haiti, China and Chile and humanitarian crises through partners such as Rural Development Institute, Eastern Congo Initiative, Engineers without Borders and Nahdet El Mahrousa.
  
  
• Promoting technology solutions that empower underserved groups and emerging economies such as Camfed, Digital Divide Data, igotITtoo and Samasource.
  
  
• Strengthening communities where we live and work, such as Friends of the High Line in New York and Age Action in Dublin.

To keep up with Googlers’ generosity in their personal giving, we also increased our charitable matching to $12,000 per employee. We thank our partners and all those who use Google for their continued business and wish everyone a happy, healthy holiday season.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Charitable Giving