Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords. It is headquartered at Googleplex, Mountain View, California, USA.
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, the two theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships between websites. They called this new technology PageRank; it determined a website’s relevance by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages, that linked back to the original site.
Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine “BackRub”, because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word “googol”, the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information. Originally, Google ran under Stanford University’s website.
Together Page and Brin own about 14 percent of its shares but control 56 of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and its unofficial slogan was “Don’t be evil.” In 2006 Google moved to headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex.
Not many companies (except for Facebook) can boast that their billion dollar business was started in a college dorm room. But Google did just that and now gives back to nonprofits across the country by matching employee donations and providing grants to nonprofits where employees volunteers.
The brain-child of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google was a research project while Brin and Page attended Stanford University. From a college research project, the company now employs 53,000 people and operates globally which means millions of dollars are being donated to nonprofits through Google’s employee giving programs.
The company’s unofficial slogan “Don’t Be Evil,” resonates throughout the ranks of the search giant. It’s no surprise then that the company, which brought in $50 billion in revenue in 2012, has an incredible corporate giving program.
Google recently announced its Global Impact Awards for organizations that take innovative approaches towards solving global problems. Their first round of awards gave out $23 million dollars in prizes. The prizes went to a variety of efforts that included a bar-coding system that stopped illegal wildlife trading, a system to monitor clean water, and improving education for youth.
An eligible full-time or part-time employee of Google, up to $6,000 dollars of his/her personal donations can be matched annually. Google will match donations made to nearly all 501(c)(3) organizations and educational institutions.
Google Donates to Nonprofit Organizations. Another $6,000 dollars in contributions made to disaster and international relief are also eligible to be matched. That means up to $12,000 can be matched annually per employee. Google also match funds that employees raise from fundraising events like marathons or dinners.
If any one can’t make a personal monetary donation, one can still raise money for a charity as a Google employee. Google will donate $50 for every 5 hours an employee volunteers with an eligible nonprofit.Another way Google gives back to charitable organizations is through its “Google Grants” program. While not grants in the traditional sense, the company does provide free advertising to 501(c)(3) organizations who apply through the company.
Google Grants is basically the nonprofit version of AdWords, Google’s online advertising tool. Nonprofit organizations can receive a monthly advertising grant stipend to spend on promoting the nonprofit’s events, mission, or initiatives on Google.com.
