Top 15 Charitable Companies

By siliconindia | Monday, 06 August 2012, 03:04 Hrs

4. Google

The software giant, Google has shown more concern towards charitable activities (225.1 percent more than the previous year) and gave over $1.11 billion in 2011, while its pretax profit being $12,326,000,000.

Google, founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is an American MNC which provides Internet-related products and services, including search engine, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies. Advertising revenues from Adwords constitute all most almost all of the company's profits. It has the mission “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful” and an unofficial slogan “Don’t be evil”.

The company offers online productivity software including email, an office suite and social networking. Google's products list also includes desktops, with applications for web browsing, organizing & editing photos, and instant messaging. Google also has led the development of the mobile OS, Android, as well as the Google Chrome OS browser, found on specialized netbooks called Chromebooks.

3. Merck

Merck showed an increase of 9.4 percent in its philanthropic giving. It invested over $1.26 billion in 2011in cash and products. It had a total of $7,334,000,000 pretax profit.

Merck, located in New Jersey, is counted among the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The company was established in 1891 as the U.S. subsidiary of the German company, Merck KGaA. The U.S. government confiscated Merck during World War I and subsequently the company got established as an independent American company.

Merck describes itself as "a global research-driven pharmaceutical company" that "discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of products to improve human and animal health." It also publishes The Merck Manuals, a series of medical reference books for physicians, nurses, and technicians. In the year 2011, Merck received the Facility of the Year Award for the integration of its global clinical supplies manufacturing, packing, and warehouse building.