Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are making plans to invest $1.1 billion on what they believe will be the largest social impact made by any organization.

Dr. Larry Brilliant has helped the blind to see and
has been instrumental in eradicating small pox in India. But these
feats may pale in comparison to the challenge that now lies before him.
On Feb. 21, Google said Brilliant, an epidemiologist and tech
entrepreneur, will become the executive director of Google.org, the
Web-search giant’s charitable arm. Larry and Sergey have promised shareholders they
will make a social impact that will eventually "eclipse Google itself"
by tackling the world’s problems. In autumn, 2005, they outlined plans
for Google.org, a network that includes both a charitable foundation
with a $90 million endowment and other forms of social investing.

The
network will focus its charitable endeavors on global poverty, energy,
and the environment. Ultimately, Google.org will spend a sum that
equals about 1% of the number of shares Google had when it went public.
Based on the current stock price, that implies spending of more than
$1.1 billion. Says Brilliant, "I’m drinking from a firehose."

Brilliant has just the eclectic background that makes him a natural fit
for Google’s philanthropic thrust. He is a physican and epidemiologist
who has also been heralded as a tech visionary. He spent a decade
studying religion in at a Himalayan monastery in India, followed by a
stint as a diplomat with the U.N. He helped lead a World Health
Organization program to eradicate smallpox and later founded the
Berkeley-based Seva Foundation, an international health
nonprofit group credited with restoring sight to more than 2 million
blind people.

His tech credentials are also impressive. In 1985,
Brilliant co-founded the Well, one of the oldest online communities,
and he has been involved in a number of tech startups in the past two
decades. "I’ve lived these two different personalities," says
Brilliant. "I understand how a technology company works and will commit
those resources to helping Google make the world a better place."

This
is why the tech company chose Brilliant, says Sheryl Sandberg, Google’s
vice-president of global online sales and operations. "Larry Brilliant
has the true passion to change the world, combined with proven ability
to do so."

Brilliant plans to start his tenure with a pilgrimage
to other foundations that are making a difference on a large scale.
First stop: the Gates Foundation, where he says Dr. William Foege,
senior fellow in global health, is a dear friend and former mentor.
"He’s the first person I’ll call," Brilliant says.

Brilliant expects to hire experts over the next few months to build
knowledge in the fields where the network aims to make its mark. Apart
from that, he says he has no immediate hiring plans, and reckons the
organization doesn’t need to be big to be effective. Meanwhile,
Brilliant has no shortage of folks who are lining up to volunteer with
Google.org, starting from within the Googleplex itself. More than 400
Google employees currently help administer the Google Grants program,
which has donated $33 million in advertising to more than 850 nonprofit
groups.

For now, Brilliant’s not divulging much more about how
the network plans to spend its windfall. The Google.org Web site
remains skeletal, providing only broad brush strokes for the network’s
long-term plans. Google.org currently supports the Acumen Fund, a
nonprofit that addresses global poverty through capital markets.

It
is also funding TechnoServe’s attempt to launch a business-plan
competition and entrepreneurship-development program in Ghana. And it
backs PlanetRead, a literacy group in India that is adding subtitles to
song videos and Bollywood films to encourage reading among people with
low literacy skills.

Those who’ve worked with Brilliant express
faith in his ability to execute Google.org’s mission. "Larry is able to
get his vision across and really rev up people and have them buy into
what he’s trying to tell them," says Anthony Kozlowski, executive
director of Seva, founded 27 years ago by Brilliant.

As
Brilliant prepares for his new role, he’s already clear on his vision.
He says: "In 10 years, I’d like people to say Google changed the world
less for its search engine than for the way in which it changed
philanthropy to make the world a better place." Given Google’s
revolutionary impact on the way people search for information,
Brilliant’s order is a tall one indeed.