Slideshow In an announcement Monday, Google officials launched their biggest grant program to date for Bay Area charities. Voice file photo by Michelle Le Previous Next

Local nonprofits can now drink from a new firehose of philanthropy. In an announcement Monday, Google officials launched their biggest grant program to date for Bay Area charities looking to grow their reach.

The company's new "Bay Area Impact Challenge" is putting forward $10 million to help fund the work of regional nonprofits. In total, Google plans to award grants to 35 nonprofits, including five that will receive $1 million apiece. The grants are being made through the company's charity arm, Google.org.

This is not the first time the company has put forward this kind of money for Bay Area do-gooders. Similar regional impact challenges were offered in 2014 and 2015.

Among the top ideas that came out of those competitions were SubArt, an effort to bring public art to BART and Muni stations, and Literacy Lab, which provides digital books to low-income families in Santa Clara County. Large grants were also given to City Year, an East San Jose program to prevent high school dropouts, and Kiva, a no-interest loan initiative for Oakland small businesses.

The Bay Area Impact Challenge was tabled for a few years, but the idea of having charities compete for large grants was implemented for other programs. Last year, Google.org launched an "AI for Social Good" grant program to find ways to harness machine learning for the betterment of mankind. Locally, Google and other tech companies partnered in 2017 to launch "Inspire Mountain View," a similar contest for nearby charities that could offer ideas to strengthen the community.