Google Steps Up Funding For "Do Good Projects"

[engine]

In one of the most widely watched efforts in corporate philanthropy in years, Google Inc. said it will dole out nearly $30 million in new grants and investments to nonprofits and a private business that are taking on do-good projects such as tapping solar power, preventing plagues and improving public services for the poor.

Google Steps Up Funding For "Do Good Projects" [online.wsj.com]

[chronic]

It's part of their "Don't look evil" mantra. They will have to work harder to keep from careening towards the public image that 'Ma Bell' and Microsoft had/have.

[WiseWebDude]

Darn, I guess Adsense income isn't going to go up anytime soon then...just kidding, LOL. That's cool.

:)

[Bentler]

Good for them, solving big problems is good business.

[Jane_Doe]

I think that is great.

[nsbucky]

pff yeah google is always trying to do stuff to make themselves look good. I just came across an adwords lawsuit site today <snip>. I gave up on adwords when I went through a 10k budget way quicker than I should have. I wonder if this affects their newpaper ads too.

[edited by: goodroi at 3:36 am (utc) on Jan. 18, 2008]

[vincevincevince]

I suspect that handing out $30 million in grants is cheaper than showing true corporate responsibility. Don't forget the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks given to Google to move to this or that location. Taking the US-wide view, Google avoiding all these taxes means substantially less tax money to spend on 'Do Good Projects' by the various levels of government - a shortfall which must be met by an increase in taxes, or just not met at all. (If there were no tax incentives to go to 'X' Google would still have made their investment somewhere)

[hutcheson]

>Google avoiding all these taxes means substantially less tax money to spend on 'Do Good Projects' by the various levels of government ...

Well, that not only does whatever good Google can do with that money, but it prevents whatever ills the various levels of government would have done with it...

Sounds like a win-win to me. But that's just my impression. Anyone who disagrees with me is welcome to start collecting state sales taxes from their customers and forwarding them to the taxing authorities.

[koan]

nsbucky, it looks like you registered just in time to drop your web site address. Looks spammy to me.

[tntpower]

It's part of their "Don't look evil" mantra. They will have to work harder to keep from careening towards the public image that 'Ma Bell' and Microsoft had/have.

Good point; good catch :)