Google showed their primary colors in a new light today when the company announced the launch of Google.org.

Google.org serves as the philanthropic heart, soul and "arm" of the world's best, free search engine.

Sergey Brin at Web 2.0 2005 Conference in S.F.

Google founders, Sergey Brin & Larry E. Page, whose harvest has been bountiful, said:

We hope that someday this institution will eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world’s problems.

So, what are the two wealthy entrepreneurs most passionate about, other than organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful?

Global poverty alleviation, energy and the environment are three areas of focus.

Sheryl Sandberg, Google's vice president of operations and advertising, who is also in charge of overseeing Google.org, said:

These are big problems so our focus is to provide sustainable and scalable solutions to these problems.

Beneficiaries of Google's bounty currently include:

Acumen Fund

Acumen Fund is a non-profit venture fund that invests in market-based solutions to global poverty.

The Fund supports entrepreneurial approaches to developing affordable goods and services for the 4 billion people in the world who live on less than $4 a day.

TechnoServe

TechnoServe is in the business of creates business solutions to rural poverty.

The organization, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, primarily serves budding entrepreneurs in Africa and Latin America.

TechnoServe's current efforts, headed by Bruce McNamer, turn good business ideas into thriving enterprises with the launch of a Business Plan Competition and an Entrepreneurship Development Program.

Founded in 1968 by the late Ed Bullard, TechnoServe's focus is to build businesses that create jobs, income, opportunity and economic growth in developing countries.

Founded on the belief that business can be a positive force for social change, operations are currently set up in El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, Kenya, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The organization is also working closely with an affiliate in Poland.

TechnoServe, which uses business measures to gauge success, has a "four star" (out-of-five) Charity Navigator Rating.

In addition to Brin and Page's Google.org, Charles Schawb's Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship supports TechnoServe.

Water Research

Google is currently focused on supporting research in western Kenya to identify ways to prevent child deaths caused by poor water quality.

The research is being conducted by Alix Zwane and Edward Miguel of UC Berkeley and Michael Kremer of Harvard University. They are, in part, studying how to better understand what works in rural water supply.

MIT's One Laptop Per Child

In addition, Google donated $2 million to the One Laptop Per Child program, a program announced in September by Nicholas Negroponte, founding chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, that aims to create a $100 laptop to give to every child in developing countries.

Google is one of five initial companies who have committed to Negroponte's project. The others are AMD, Brightstar, News Corporation and Red Hat.

In-Kind Advertising for Non-Profit Organizations

Google.org states:

In addition, one of our early Google initiatives was to create the Google Grants program, which gives free advertising to selected 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations.

To date, Google Grants has donated $33M in advertising to more than 850 non-profit organizations in 10 countries.

Current Google Grants participants include the Grameen Foundation USA, Doctors Without Borders, Room to Read, and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

A Catalyst of Giving

Google Grants award recipients have benefited greatly from the increased awareness of their organization via free AdWords advertising.

Room to Read, which educates children in Vietnam, Nepal, India and Cambodia, attracted a sponsor who clicked on its AdWords ad.

Room To Read Recipient

This one sponsor donated funds to support the education of 25 girls for the next 10 years.

Other supporters of Room To Read, which was founded by former Microsoft executive, John Wood, include: Venture capitalists Bill Draper and Don Valentine, Ebay founder Jeff Skoll and serial entrepreneur, Mark Andreesen.

Since its inception in 2000, over 1,000 individuals, corporations and foundations have chosen to support Room To Read's efforts to provoke world change by focusing on educating children.

As a result of CoachArt's Ad campaign, they have seen a 60 to 70 percent increase in volunteers. CoachArt supports children with life-threatening illnesses through art and athletics programs.

US Fund for UNICEF's e-commerce site, Shop UNICEF, has experienced a 43 percent increase in sales over the previous year.

To date, Google Grants has donated $33M in advertising to more than 850 non-profit organizations in 10 countries.

For information about the Google Grants program, please visit:

Forbes' Rich Karlgaard wrote this week in "Digital Rules" a piece called Wonderful Wealth. In it, he said:

Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page have gifted the world with free search.

Do we ever stop to say thanks?

In ancient times the Library of Alexandria held the collected knowledge of the Western world. Its more than 400,000 scrolls were the first systematic and serious collection of documentation on physics, literature, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, biology and engineering. The only trouble was that you had to physically be in Alexandria in order to tap into its resources. Now you can be in Bangalore, India or Bippus, Indiana.

In September 1998, the world became a better place when two guys from Stanford University turned their college research project into a business that deserves a place in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. It certainly is a part of my every day language.

On October 12th 2005, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, announced that their company is donating three million shares of stock toward philanthropic efforts initiated by their Google.org staff.

At the close of the market today, 3 million shares of GOOG represented over $900 million.

Q3 2005 Profits

The company plans to match that contribution with another 1% of Google's profits.

On October 20th, Google will report its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2005.

Over the past four quarters, Google has reported net profits of around $968 million, resulting in a contribution of just under $10 million for charitable works.

"This can grow over time as potentially our stock or our profits increase," Sandberg said.

The company has contributed cash representing about 300,000 of the 3 million share commitment to fund the Google Foundation with an initial endowment of $93 million.

Google.org plans to invest up to another $175 million over the next three years.

Brin, Page, The Google Foundation, Google Grants and Google.org under Sandberg's leadership are not accepting funding requests and unsolicited proposals at this time.

Sergey Brin & Larry Page at TED 2005

Brin and Page, who are tied for the sixteenth position amongst the richest people in America, may be willing to consider proposals of marriage, perhaps. According to the 2005 Forbes 400 the thirty-two year-old billionaires are still single.

Charitable programs like MIT Media Lab's One $100 Laptop Per Child, however, are Google.org's department.

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "two guys followed by 100 zeros of giving" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King, Rugged Elegance, LLC

P.S. Thanks Sergey and Larry and Dr. Schmidt and Sheryl and everyone at Google...!