Google Donates $1 Billion to Charity

The poverty and the environment pollution are just two of the stringent problems on Google's agenda, and one of the company's beliefs ("you can make money without doing evil") is put into practice with an impressive $1 billion donation.

The online giant's humanitarian plans were revealed in conjunction with the presentation of Google.org, an organization whose goal is to make the world a better place to live in.

Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, outlined the initiative's altruistic nature ever since the company listed at the stock market. The organization will make contributions to non-profit groups and, in addition, it will lay the foundation to new social projects.

The organization is the result of the contributions made by several top IT companies, among which HP, eBay and Chevron. So far, Google has sponsored the discovery of the entrepreneurs ready to start a business in Ghana. The prize consists of the necessary capital to start the business. Another donation made by Google went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where a $100 computer is being researched.

Since 2003, Google has started to offer free ad spaces on the companies' sites for the organizations promoting noble causes. Google would have won $33 million from these messages alone.

The company has announced a contribution system directly proportional with the Google stocks' value. Google.org will get 1% of the company stocks' value, which means that the higher the quotation, the higher the contribution is. At the last stock market session, one percent of the company's stocks amounted to $918.