We’ve heard a little bit about Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s new foundation, Good Ventures, specifically a company that the firm invested in last August. Today we’ve learned a lot more, as the site for Good Ventures has been launched, and it discusses exactly what the foundation will be doing and which companies and causes it’s currently involved in.

Its “portfolio” reads like a list of every difficult problem felt in third-world countries, and it’s expansive already. Just some of the issues that Good Ventures has issued grants for are curing and treating malaria, marriage equality, wells for clean drinking water, and small enterprise support. The grants seem to average $50,000 and are going directly to the causes that need it the most.

Good Ventures was co-founded by Moskovitz and former Wall Street Journal reporter Cari Tuna. The about us page on the site describes their mission clearly and concisely:

Good Ventures is a philanthropic foundation whose mission is to help humanity thrive.

Here’s an excerpt from their intro letter on their reason for creating the foundation:

We’ve seen human well-being increase dramatically in recent decades. Quality of life is rising and violence is declining. At the same time, humanity is becoming better networked, technologically, economically and socially. We’re optimistic that these trends will continue — even accelerate — in the decades to come.

Our giving, leveraged well, can quicken the pace of humanity’s progress and mitigate the risks that threaten to derail it. Our giving can increase the human capital on which society has to draw. Our giving can prevent unnecessary suffering by ensuring that the fruits of our collective labor benefit those who are most marginalized today.

While it doesn’t look like investments or grants will be systematic like one from a regular venture capital firm, it does seem like the organization gives Moskovitz and Tuna the platform to drive change by placing money directly with causes. For example, Good Ventures set out to co-fund based on a recommendation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last August. The cause supports an effort to contain and eliminate drug resistance to antimalarial medications, and Good Ventures donated $1M.

The site also has a great bit of content about the causes it’s involved in, as well as why you should be giving to charities too, with most posts penned by Tuna. Here’s an excerpt from a recent one about giving:

People give to charity for a wide variety reasons. Some give to improve the lives of their friends, family or neighbors. Some give to advance a cause or support an organization that’s close to their heart. Some give to express their faith or spirituality. Some give because it feels good.

The primary goal of our giving is to improve the lives of as many people as possible as much as possible. We believe that all lives are valuable, including future lives. These guiding principles have big implications for the foundation’s approach to grantmaking.

We’ve reached out to Moskovitz and Tuna and will hopefully be telling a bit more of their story in a future “Weekly Good” article. Until then, head over to their site to see exactly what they’re up to.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Today, Google announced a new program called the “Global Impact Awards” to help jumpstart technology innovation in the nonprofit sector, an area that surely needs a kickstart.

Google also said it has given more than $100 million in grants, $1 billion in technology and 50K hours of volunteer time from its employees. If every company gave back like this, it would be a a better planet. This isn’t a time to be a cynic. This is real and true.

Here’s what Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Giving at Google (awesome title), had to say about it:

Today we’re launching the Global Impact Awards to support organizations using technology and innovative approaches to tackle some of the toughest human challenges. From real-time sensors that monitor clean water to DNA barcoding that stops wildlife trafficking, our first round of awards provides $23 million to seven organizations changing the world.

With the type of clout that Google has in the tech space, and the world of innovation, this is an extremely important move for nonprofits to pay attention to. Basically, if Google can “put its money where its mouth is”, amazing world-changing things can happen.

Here are the seven nonprofits that will benefit from the program:

1. charity: water: Real-time technology to monitor water and ensure it gets to more people
2. Consortium for the Barcode of Life: DNA barcoding to identify and protect endangered wildlife
3. DonorsChoose.org: New program to enroll more underrepresented students in advanced classes
4. Equal Opportunity Schools: Data to identify high-performing yet underrepresented students
5. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: Tools to analyze and promote gender equality in media
6. GiveDirectly: Mobile technology to put money directly into the hands of the poor
7. World Wildlife Fund: New technologies to advance anti-poaching efforts

This program fits in nicely with what Google has done with Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the company, which includes projects like Crisis Maps for use when natural disasters are about to hit.

This all follows a slow trend of large companies “giving back” to the world in which they inhabit and benefit from. You can find more details about the program and the benefiting nonprofits at the Global Impact Awards site.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google Energy today announced an agreement to purchase 114 megawatts of wind power per year for 20 years at a set price from an Iowa wind farm owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources.

A Google spokesperson Jamie Yodd noted, “This is the first contract for Google Energy. We plan on exploring other opportunities to provide our data centers with environmentally friendly power [in 2010]. It isn’t limited to wind power.”

But the company isn’t planning to immediately use the wind power from the Iowa facility on its own operations.

Iowa is the second most wind power-generating state in the U.S. according to the American Wind Energy Association with existing power capacity of 3,670 megawatts and another 200 megawatts of capacity on the way. Texas leads with 9,505 megawatts in existing wind power generation capacity.

NextEra Energy Resources is the 18,000 megawatt power supply division — with 42% or 7,650 megawatts of that power from wind — of NextEra Energy, Inc., the Juno, Fla. energy company with revenue over $15 billion.

Overall, NextEra Energy employs more than 15,000 in 28 states and Canada, and has nearly 43,000 megawatts of generating capacity through wind, solar, hydro, natural gas, oil and nuclear.

Before it had established its energy subsidiary, Google invested $38.8 million directly in NextEra Energy’s large, utility-scale wind power generation projects in North Dakota.

Google also made significant investments in clean energy research and development projects, and startups — including AltaRock Energy, eSolar and AlertMe — through its “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal” (or RE

The search leader won the federal government’s approval to buy and sell energy as of February this year.

Now Google Energy allows it to: get electricity at favorable prices, lock in these prices over the long haul, use the power it buys for its own data centers and operations, and sell surplus energy to regional markets. Through this strategy, Yood says, “We’re partially protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices.”

Google also gathers RECs or renewable energy certificates along the way. In the laymen’s view, RECs are just like carbon offsets.

As the Environmental Protection Agency more stiffly defines them, RECs are sold independently of “physical electricity associated with a renewable-based generation source,” and “allow organizations to support renewable energy development and protect the environment when green power products are not locally available.”

Google could obtain RECs by just purchasing them from other companies who have invested in, or generated power from renewable sources. But then it wouldn’t have the operational advantage of predictably priced power.

Google Energy and NextEra Energy Resources declined to discuss the numbers behind the set pricing for their wind power deal.

But a NextEra Energy spokesman noted on Tue. “A long term commitment [by Google] to purchase a significant portion of the output from one of our wind projects is obviously a good thing for us.”

Google first established its goal of offsetting its own carbon footprint in 2007. This deal should bring it 114 megawatts per year closer to carbon neutrality.

[Image via Brooke Raymond]

Article courtesy of TechCrunch