I am sure everyone who has attempted a Google Search recently has seen that they have posted a link to donate to the Myanmar cyclone crisis. Furthermore, they are willing to match donations up to $1M which fits in with the 'corporate matching' conversation we were having last class. They also built NASA satellite pictures into Google Earth, and the Google Earth & Maps team issued a statement, claiming: "We hope these updates raise awareness about the impact of this cyclone and the devastation it has caused, and will help aid workers in their recovery efforts."
Google Grants (the non-profit side) is also getting heavily involved, which ties into our discussion about for profit-non profit hybrids. More info can be found here: http://googlegrants.blogspot.com/2008/05/grant-recipients-helping-victims-of.html
The statement can be found here: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/05/imagery-for-myanmar-burma.html
My questions are: What are the reactions to the fact that both google's for profit and google's non-profit are both involving themselves in the relief efforts? what is everyone's reaction to the $1M cap in relation to Google's annual revenue? Is this truly social philanthropy or partly marketing/brand investment? What about the fact that google has been strongly trying to grow international presence in this part of the world?
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2 comments:
Shaun, I am not strictly answering your questions. Just a clarification.
What I understand is, Google Grants is still part of the for-profit side, and is a feature of the Non-Profits portal in Google.com.
http://www.google.com/nonprofits/
Similarly, Google also has a separate target base of educators 'Google for Educators' where services are provided specifically towards educators.
Their non-profit company Google.org has a specific set of goals:
Address the global challenges of climate change, poverty and emerging disease.
Given this charter, however it does seem appropriate for Google.org to involve itself also in this cause.
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