The world’s economy is currently struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because due to how fast the virus spreads, many businesses have been forced to suspend their operations until the outbreak can get under control. For smaller businesses that do not have a large cashflow, it means that they could very well go out of business.
This will affect many, such as the business owners themselves, banks who might not be able to get their money back, and of course, the people who work for these businesses. While governments around the world are making individual efforts on this front, we’re seeing companies lend a helping hand as well, such as Google who recently announced that they’ll be pledging over $800 million to support SMEs in this time of crisis.
This $800 million will be split into several initiatives, such as in the form of ad grants to the WHO and government agencies, an investment fund that will support NGOs and financial institutions to help provide capital to SMEs, Google Ads credits to SMEs, Google Cloud credits for the academic sector, and also financial support to help increase the production of protective clothing and equipment used by healthcare workers.
Google also announced that they’ll be increasing their “gift matching”, where the company basically matches what employees give to various charitable organizations. This amount has been increased from $7,500 to $10,000, meaning that in theory, Google employees could end up giving as much as $20,000 to organizations in their communities.
Filed in . Read more about Coronavirus, Covid-19 and Google. Source: blog.google