Google’s charitable chief: ‘I have a strong sense of social justice’

Jacquelline Fuller, 47, did not set out to work in philanthropy, let alone run one of the biggest corporate giving programmes. But as managing director of Google.org – the internet search engine’s charitable arm – she is in charge of spending $100m a year on charitable projects, a sum that dwarfs the average donation by UK-based FTSE 100 companies of £3m, according to the Charitable Aid Foundation.

“I didn’t grow up thinking to myself ‘I’m going to work in corporate philanthropy’. But I always had a very strong sense of social justice and always cared deeply about that,” she says. “My father was a diplomat, and growing up I thought a lot about nuclear warfare and how to prevent all of these missiles aimed at each other.” She studied arms control and planned on going into diplomacy, but had what she describes as an “epiphany moment” when she realised her talents could be better used elsewhere.

Fuller changed her major to urban poverty and public policy, and after graduating worked in Watts, one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles. After two years as speechwriter to the US secretary of health and human services in Washington, she did a masters in public policy at Harvard, had two daughters and got her first job in philanthropy. “As I was coming back to work, I’d heard of this little startup called the Gates Foundation. It was just a handful of people at that point and they were working in a small office above a pizza shop. And I thought: ‘Right, if Bill Gates says he’s going to give the majority of his money to the poorest of the poor, I can help, I can help.’

After eight years at the foundation, working on global health and international development including a year running an HIV prevention programme in India, she wanted a new challenge. “The Gateses had really lifted the bar on personal philanthropy – in terms of what individuals can do, in terms of making it smarter and making it better. But then, I looked out and saw the corporate sector and the immense potential there. I’d heard about a little startup called Google.org at this little search engine company called Google, back in 2007, which had such grand ambitions. And I thought: ‘Wow, these guys who have revolutionised the tech industry, if they’re going to devote that same level of creativity and dedication and seriousness of purpose to philanthropy, that would be great to be part of.’”

Most of the $100m Google.org spends comes from Google’s global profits – the company’s founding documents stipulate that 1% of annual profits go to philanthropy. The rest comprises grants from the Google Foundation, which was established in 2005 with a $90m endowment following Google’s stock market listing, to support its philanthropic aims.

Since 2013, Google.org has spent £9m in the UK. “It’s very important to us to be good citizens in the place where we live and work. And we have a huge presence here in the UK. So this is an area that’s natural for us to invest in,” says Fuller.

But doesn’t that notion of being a good citizen run counter to Google’s paying only £21.6m corporation tax in the UK on revenues of $5.6bn (£3.6bn) in 2013? If it paid more tax, surely there’d be less need for philanthropy. “We don’t see philanthropy and tax as substituting for one another. They are separate. Google is paying all the tax that’s legally required, so we are a good citizen there,” Fuller says. “In addition to taxes, companies should also in parallel, be investing philanthropically to be good neighbours and good citizens.” But she does concede there’s a need for a better global fiscal system. “We do need reform, but we need to do it at the OECD level.”

So far there is little evidence of the largest firms being the good neighbours Fuller advocates. In the UK, less than a quarter of FTSE 100 companies donate 1% or more of their pretax profits to charitable causes. Nonetheless, Fuller believes the picture is far from pessimistic. “The philanthropy sector here in the UK is strong and growing,” she says. “We want to encourage more of a sense of philanthropy in corporations and in the tech community because the tech community has a real potential to give both resources and expertise. We’re looking for ways to inspire that.”

Fuller’s team – 14 staff in the US and one in the UK – are responsible for assessing and choosing which charities to award grants to. Google.org invests in projects making innovative use of technology for humanitarian or social benefit. In the UK, 20 charities won grants ranging from £200,000 to £500,000 in 2013 and 2014. These included a project by the Royal National Institute for the Blind to develop smart glasses, as well as initiatives tackling youth homelessness and youth unemployment through technology. It also makes grants largely focused on computer science education. This year, Google.org is running a global competition (applications close at the end of September) to award $20m to not-for-profit organisations using technology to increase independence for people with physical or cognitive disabilities.

In addition to the funding, charities also get any expertise and support they need from Google volunteers. All Google employees, known as Googlers, can spend 20% of their time on non work-related activities (as long as it is connected in some way to a project that Google or Google.org is involved with). Staff spend around 100,000 hours per year of their work-time volunteering with non-profits connected to the company or its charitable arm.

In addition, Google as a company matches employees’ individual fundraising efforts and donates $1bn of free advertising, email and other Google products each year as part of its commitment under the 1-1-1 pledge. 1-1-1 was initiated by the charitable foundation of cloud computing company Salesforce. Firms pledge to give 1% of their products, as well as 1% of time and money to philanthropy. As part of Google’s commitment, all charities can sign up to a programme called Google for non profits to receive $10,000 a month of free advertising on Google as well as free use of its email, calendar, YouTube, Google Drive and mapping services.

Some may question the motivation of Google’s philanthropic arm. Is it giving grants to technology start ups that the company could buy out at a later stage? “No, absolutely not,” Fuller says.

Its life sciences division recently bought Lift Lab, a small company that makes a hi-tech spoon which reduces tremors in Parkinson’s patients. But Fuller says Google has never bought an organisation that Google.org previously gave a grant to, and that there is no conflict of interest.

Whether Google.org gets as much money in future years is questionable as profits would be adversely affected if the EU goes ahead with possible legal action which, if successful, could see the company fined up to 10% of global profits for alleged abuse of its dominant market position. But for now, Fuller seems positive about the charitable arm’s outlook.

“In three years, I hope Google.org has provided digital skills training for more than a million people across Europe who would otherwise not have access. And I’d like to see every Googler worldwide get involved in hands on help with one of our partners,” she says, adding: “Personally, I hope to still be running Google.org and helping to create a movement for innovative philanthropy among companies globally.”

Curriculum vitae

Age: 47.

Lives: Orinda, California.

Family: Married, two daughters

Education: Langley high school, McLean, Virginia; BA, political science, UCLA; masters in public policy, the Kennedy School, Harvard University.

Career: 2007-present: director, Google.org; 1999 - 2007 Deputy Director of Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; 1996-99: consultant; 1994-96: at home with children; 1990-1992 speechwriter to US secretary of health and human services; Watts, Los Angeles.

Public life: Member of the board of GiveDirectly; member of the board of the Eastern Congo Initiative.

Interests: Hiking, biking, encouraging women and girls in tech.