Giving back is part of our corporate DNA. In 2011, we provided $115 million in grants and more than $1 billion of in-kind support to nonprofits and academic institutions. Google employees also contributed 40,000 paid volunteer hours helping organizations around the world. Learn more about our major initiatives below.
Nonprofit organizations have been hit hard by today’s economic uncertainty yet, in times like these, their vital services are needed more than ever. We are grateful for the millions of Google users who have helped us grow and do our part to help charitable organizations who are working tirelessly to make the world a better place.
In 2011, we will provide $40 million in financial support to organizations focused on education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); girls education—particularly in developing countries; modern slavery and sex-trafficking; and technology empowerment.
In the wake of a disaster, we provide immediate cash grants to critical first responders. We then research and provide grants to additional organizations, mostly local, working on long-term recovery efforts. We’ve donated more than $8 million to disaster relief since 2005.
Our offices and data centers around the world are deeply tied to their local communities. Community Affairs helps local offices support surrounding schools, nonprofits and small businesses in ways that play to Googler competencies and passions and deliver on needs in each community.
Employees at Google like to give back—and we encourage it. Of the many volunteer programs and gift matching initiatives we support, most were started by Googlers themselves.
When employees give cash contributions to nonprofits, we match them, providing tens of millions of dollars for charitable work around the globe.
Each June, we encourage Googlers to leave their desks for a day to participate in service projects in their communities ranging from cleaning graffiti to trail maintenance to teaching prisoners. We call this program GoogleServe. In 2011, more than 7700 Googlers tackled more than 400 projects in 119 cities around the world.
Many nonprofits rely on donations and volunteers to accomplish their work. Our Dollars for Doers program contributes in both ways. For every five hours a Googler volunteers at a nonprofit of his or her choosing, we donate $50 to that nonprofit. In 2011, the program generated over 18,500 hours of volunteered time.
Google was born out of a Stanford dorm room, and we continue to value our connection to academia. We devote significant time, energy, and funding to research across an array of subjects. We also cultivate ties with the academic community to ensure that the next generation of passionate thinkers and brilliant breakthroughs are on the way.
Our Google Research Awards program offers distinguished researchers unrestricted financial support to pursue advances in information access. In addition, we fund accessibility research programs that work to make the Internet more accessible to people with disabilities. We sponsor workshops and high-school-education initiatives in engineering, math and science through our RISE Awards. We also run a Google Scholarship program that provides PhD candidates with financial support and Google mentors. To date, we’ve supported 2,100 Google Scholars, many of them for minorities and women, with more than $8.8 million in scholarship funds.
We provide nonprofits with access to many of our premium products so they can more easily raise awareness of their important causes and ultimately have more impact.
We offer nonprofits free or discounted access to premium Google products like Google AdWords and Google Apps, free licenses of Google Earth, SketchUp and Google Maps and premium services in YouTube. Participating nonprofits can also get support from Google Earth Outreach.
We supply nonprofits with our used and refurbished laptops, desktops and peripheral devices like printers and disk drives. Our Google Goodware program focuses on nonprofits and schools located close to our offices and data centers.