Matt Cutts
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Google
FUNDING AREAS: Policy and Civic Action, Digital Rights, Education, Health and Human Services
OVERVIEW: Matt Cutts once did his grantmaking through the Cutts Foundation, though the charity's assets were transferred to a donor-advised fund a few years ago, making it difficult to discern the full scope of Cutts' current grantmaking. Interests include policy and civic action.
BACKGROUND: Matt Cutts received B.S. degrees in math and computer science from University of Kentucky, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill. Cutts joined Google in 2000 as a software engineer and was head of Google's Webspam team. He wrote the first version of SafeSearch, Google's family filter. Cutts is currently the acting administrator for the United States Digital Service.
Cutts’s wife Cindy died in March 2018.
ISSUES:
POLICY AND CIVIC ACTION: Matt Cutts has supported places like Voter’s Edge, "a comprehensive, nonpartisan online guide to federal, state, and local elections in California, Illinois, and New York"; the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for open government; MapLight, which "illuminates the connection between campaign contributions and legislative votes in unprecedented ways"; Poynter Institute for Media Studies; and Committee to Protect Journalists.
Cutts prioritizes harnessing technology to make government work better.
DIGITAL RIGHTS: Cutts supported Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Resource.org, a "nonprofit corporation dedicated to publishing and sharing public domain materials in the United States and internationally."
EDUCATION: Cutts has supported organizations like Kahn Academy and Code for America Labs.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Cutts supports Sexual Health Innovations, an organization which "creates technology that advances sexual health and wellbeing in the United States." One of the organization's main initiatives is Callisto, a Google.org-funded sexual assault reporting system. Cutts also supported Humane Society Silicon Valley and Second Harvest Food Bank.
LOOKING FORWARD: Only in his 40s, Cutts has turned to philanthropy quite early while still very much engaged in business. In the coming years perhaps his grantmaking will become more transparent and accessible again.
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