Find something in the world you're capable of fixing, and use all the skills at your disposal to make it work. Acting for the common good should be as commonplace and as devotional as going into business, says Google.org Executive Director Larry Brilliant. Making the world a better place should take the same focus as devising the next great widget.
In addition to dollars, Google.org harnesses the company's engineering talent to try to make the world fairer, more just, and safer, says the corporate non-profit's Executive Director Larry Brilliant. The company made a decision to dedicate one percent of its profits to global causes. It took 18 months to find that unique short list of problems that Google could uniquely solve, at the right scale, with sustainable results. Brilliant also explains his philosophy of Ghandi's talisman which helped him find the right focus.
Young people with mammoth commercial success have bred a new kind of philanthropic entrepreneur, says Google.org's Executive Director Larry Brilliant. And Brilliant also explains his optimism in smallpox, using it as a case study on a managed disease that once killed half a billion people worldwide. Through global unity and a concentrated effort, akin to what Google.org strives to accomplish in other areas, the virus was eradicated; thanks, in equal parts, to scientific discovery and philanthropic will.
After a mock trial session to whittle down the most critical causes from an applicant pool of 10,000, Google.org chose just five areas of concentration: renewable energy, plug-in vehicles, prevention of pandemics, famines, and floods, public services for the poor, and job creation. And the organization's Executive Director, Larry Brilliant, offers this overview of these pressing global issues, and pinpoints Google's resources dedicated toward finding solutions, using tools such as financing, Google Earth, and the engineering of solar energy.
Money that often fuels traditional philanthropic efforts comes from government money or a foundation. But relying on these sources for income is not a sure bet, says Executive Director of Google.org Larry Brilliant. Great causes can lose their financial footing easily, particularly when caught in-between political administrations with differing world views.
Larry Brilliant, Executive Director for Google.org, confesses that the company stole the idea for a profit-driven non-profit from Salesforce.com. Brilliant reminds us that only privately-held companies can give their money to charity, but that Google is optimistic about recruiting other large enterprises to work in the public interest.