Don’t be evil. That’s the informal slogan at Google. It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since Larry and Sergey’s brainchild has entered the world in its current incarnation. Since then, that precocious ten-year-old has introduced us to:

• The verb “to google”
• SaaS that was easy and transparent to use
• Upping the ante in the e-mail storage capacity wars
• Innovation Time Off (20% of employees can devote time towards projects beyond their daily activities)
• Android and Chrome
• Google.org (their for-profit philanthropy arm)

Their meteoric growth since their IPO, alongside the pressures to manage their ballooning personnel ranks, people have been very critical as to whether Google can sustain their “don’t be evil” motto.

Yes, they did acquire DoubleClick in early 2007, which until then, was best known for serving intrusive ads that left cookies that could follow you from page to page.

But Google has always been quick to atone for any missteps, and their charitable efforts have been so generous, that they always force the public to re-evaluate one’s own concept of philanthropy.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, and re-affirm their decidedly non-evil status, their Project 10¹⁰⁰ (read: Project 10 to the 100^th) is an example of charitable collaboration.

The contest is a massive request for proposals from the net community for ideas that will improve quality of life for the greatest number of people. The scope of these ideas fall into eight categories ranging from health and education to the eponymous “Everything Else”.

People have until October 20^th, 2008 to submit their proposal along with a 30-second video if desired. Google will sort through the ideas and post the 100 best on the site for the public to vote on (starting January 27^th, 2009). That will whittle the selection pool to 20 candidates, from which their panel of experts will select the five winners. The criteria range from how wide the impact of the idea is (reach) and how long its effects persist (longevity).

The winners will get a piece of the $10 million prize, which will be used to help grow their idea from “30-second YouTube Spot” to “1-hour Charlie Rose Interview” (I’m a big fan of Charlie.)

So if you and a friend think you’re the next Buffett/Gates philanthropy tag-team, give it a shot.