Google launched its Global Impact Awards program. Photo: AFP
"Technology has dramatically improved our lives, from the speed at which we get things done to how we connect with others," Google director of giving Jacquelline Fuller said in a blog post announcing the awards.
"Yet innovations in medicine, business and communications have far outpaced tech-enabled advances in the nonprofit sector."
Meanwhile, Microsoft held a Social Innovation Summit at which it announced the winners of $3 million in "Imagine Cup" grants to students with promising projects for the global good.
"The Imagine Cup Grants will help students evolve a great idea for addressing a societal issue into a real-world business," said Dan'l Lewin, corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft.
"These students have developed incredible approaches that show great potential for positive local impact."
A $100,000 grand prize Imagine Cup grant went to a team from Germany that devised a way to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by letting each driver know the best route to their destination.
Other grant winners included Australian students with a way to better detect pneumonia and a team from the Ukraine that developed a handheld gadget that translates sign language into verbal communication.
Imagine Cup awards include software and "cloud" computing services for winners.
Google Global Impact awards included $5 million for Charity Water to install water flow sensors at thousands of points across Africa and $3 million to use "DNA barcoding" of endangered species to fight illegal wildlife trade.
The World Wildlife Fund was awarded $5 million for technology to battle poaching. Millions of dollars were also awarded to groups involved with improving math and science education in the United States