Google has set a new record of donating more than $260 million to nonprofit organizations this year alone through its open-sourced philanthropic platform, Google.org, and the entire Google community. Diane Solinger, Director of Google Engagement at Google.org, said late last week that the donation was extended to nonprofits with a core focus on education, inclusion and economic opportunity. Part of the philanthropic activity was to provide aid to those who were hit by natural calamities such as floods, hurricanes, and fires, with support from Googlers and the public as a whole through various forms of relief campaigns.
More specifically, more than 35 nonprofit organizations have received some sort of funding this year after Google raised a $30 million fund as part of a broader effort to extend help to nonprofits worldwide, with Googlers assisting in the process of addressing the funds to certain organizations from different parts of the world where Google.org’s core focus areas are an issue. The search giant also used its Giving Week program to make donations during the holidays by allowing Googlers to match the contribution made by their peers, with Doctors Without Borders, Second Harvest Food Bank, GiveDirectly, and the ACLU having dominated the list of organizations that made donations through the Giving Week program this year. In particular, Google matched more than $20 million for thousands of nonprofits from the various parts of the world in just a single week. Additionally, total donations jointly given by Googlers and the search giant itself to disaster relief campaigns reached almost $97 million, courtesy of the gift matching program. Under that program, Google.org makes certain amount of donations for every $6,000 in accumulated aid by employees for nonprofits.
On top of those donations, Google.org also extended $120 million in grants to support a host of other nonprofit organizations in 2017 alone. The donations Google granted to nonprofits this year alone complement the other philanthropic endeavors initiated by the Mountain View, California-based giant this year, including the $50 million in grants announced last July meant to help job seekers deal with the fluctuating nature of a workplace. In April last year, Google announced a $20 million investment in tech companies that focus on disabilities, with 30 organizations having been selected to split that amount.